Climbing to Hope
by A Dingus With Sweet Shades
Summary: My name is Nicholas White. My brother and I are members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Special Unit; a highly confidential counter-terrorism team. I'm still just a student, of Hope's Peak Academy. Something is going on behind the scenes, here. Something fishy. I don't like it. I am Nicholas White, and I'm here to solve this. [COMPLETE - Bad End]
1. Prologue

When one is accepted to Hope's Peak Academy, they're usually overfilled with joy and shock. It's not easy, a lot of work goes into getting your very own Ultimate title. People may try all their lives and it doesn't happen. For some, it just happens—status and wealth can be a big thing. It's a rare occurrence to be chosen to attend the school, so you need to appreciate such things.

Nicholas White didn't feel excited. He was a bit scared, actually.

He had been trying. Of course, every Japanese teenager did. Nearly everyone picked a talent and practiced, practiced, practiced. Nicholas wasn't an exception. But yet, the envelope sits in his hands, and he's scared. Nervous. It's not as if he was a timid, shy kid, no, he was a prodigy, of sorts. Only seventeen years of age, and he was the leader of a highly confidential counter-terrorism unit in Tokyo, Japan.

"Logan."

Nicholas sits on the sofa in his spacious, expensive apartment. Across from him, is another sofa, and there sits his brother—Logan.

"You think it was a good idea?" he asks, quietly.

"You know no one's gonna listen to us." Logan mutters, scratching his chin, where a scruffy, dark brown beard had grown. "We're children to them. We had to."

"Yeah… but… the timing is so convenient, I…" Nicholas mutters, before shaking his head. "It's a little shifty."

"Agreed." Logan nods. "Maybe it's proof. Proof something really is up."

"Maybe they didn't just randomly choose us, huh…" Nicholas murmurs, going silent after.

Thunder suddenly roars and lightning flashes from outside, illuminating the late night. Most lights across the city were out, as the clock neared midnight. The apartment was dead quiet, aside from the sounds of the Spring storms went on outside. A chilly draft entered the living room, sending shivers through the two. Logan mentally thanked himself for bringing his suit jacket, whilst Nicholas had already put his away, sitting in only an untucked dress shirt and pants. He mentally cursed himself for not having it.

"It's getting late. I'm gonna get home now—watch yourself for the next few days, okay?" Logan says, sternly, as he gets to his feet. A finger is wagged in Nicholas' direction.

"Yeah, you too. Something's up here, I don't like this." Nicholas says in response.

Nicholas gets up too, walking up to Logan and giving his brother a protective hug, as the two pat one another on the back. "See you at work, yeah?"

"Yeah," Logan nods. "Am I on the ground tomorrow?"

"Mhm. You're gonna sneak in, okay? Don't show up to the station, no one can know you're doing this." Nicholas says, voice quieting down to almost a whisper. "You know what to do."

"Got it." Logan whispers back. "And you do, too? I have an extraction plan, yeah?"

"Of course. You're gonna make it look like you're another hostage," Nicholas says, "You do what you do, try to send me some sort of signal, and I'll have riot teams knockin' on the front door. Snipers'll be set up on the roofs, you'll be out in no time."

"Undercover work, eh…" Logan chuckles, "Nothin' new, but, ain't never hid nothing from _us._"

"You said it yourself, we're just children to them. If this, Ultimate Despair is a real thing, this is our chance to find out. No one's gonna listen. We do this, or it doesn't happen." Nicholas says, staring Logan in the eye.

After a pause, Logan nods, again. "Yeah, you're right, little brother. I'm off now, good night."

"Night."

* * *

**ONE MONTH LATER**

* * *

Nicholas figured he might stand out, wearing a full suit and tie for the first day of school, but he was actually pleasantly surprised. He walked up the steps to Hope's Peak Academy, and you could already tell just how high-class the place was, without even being inside. Others wearing suits, ties, sport jackets, jewelry, and more expensive clothing were everywhere. Despite this, you could still see the casual jeans and hoodies, skirts and t-shirts, and such. It was interesting to see all the other people his age around Nicholas, but, he wasn't looking at them to see how nice their clothes were.

He felt there wasn't anything wrong with getting a proper education here, and yes, he would enjoy his few years. But it's not for this reason Nicholas and Logan tried so hard to get in.

The school was corrupt.

Something was going on behind the scenes.

Nicholas didn't know much. The anonymous tip was vague, but a few words stuck in his mind. Hope. Despair. Tragedy. Hope Cultivation Project. It didn't make any sense. With a few friends in the school, Nicholas was to expose the secrets of Hope's Peak Academy.

"Well, if it ain't Mr. Ultimate Commander."

A familiar voice suddenly calls out from behind. Nicholas turns, at the sound of his Ultimate title, and sees a young man wearing a dark brown leather jacket, over a grey button-up and red tie, with a pair of dark jeans.

"Kagome." Nicholas offers a hand. The teenager shakes it, coming up to his side.

"Hope's Peak Academy…" he mutters, taking a drag of the cigarette hanging loosely from his lips. His hazel eyes gaze upon the intimidatingly large school. "It ain't gonna be easy what we're gettin' ourselves into here. We find out something's really goin' on here, we're in danger. You know that, right?"

Nicholas nods. He opens his navy blue suit jacket, and reaches into the inside breast pocket, pulling out the item inside discreetly. In his hand was now a Beretta Pico self defense handgun—loaded with six .380 ACP cartridges. He quickly showed the boy in front of him, before putting it back, ensuring no one saw.

"Me too." the teenager says, quietly, patting his right pocket. The bulge of a blade could be seen, if one paid close attention. "If anyone catches ya, just remember: self defense. S'all."

"Of course." Nicholas nods. "Should probably get going soon, though. Let's go."

The other nodded. The teenager was named Kagome Kazuki, Ultimate Private Eye. The two are working together on the case, as well as a few other connections within the school. The operation was about to begin…

Things had been going fine. First class was math, one of Nicholas' strong points. It wasn't too much, as it was the first day, and it was rather more introductory than anything. The classroom seemed fine, nobody seemed too shady or anything, but Nicholas still kept an eye out.

But, it didn't take too long for all of this to fall apart.

A quiet hissing noise is suddenly heard. Nicholas' ears pick it up, as his eyes immediately dart around for the source. A few whispers and murmuring follow, making Nicholas not the only one to have heard it. And out of the corner of his eye, Nicholas sees it.

Gas.

Dark green gas.

"Oh, shit—" Nicholas says, shooting out of his seat. "Hey! Everyone cover their nose and mouths!"

And it was already too late for Nicholas. He follows his own orders, as the rest of the students erupt into chaos, beginning to scream, and shout. He runs to the door, trying to get it open, but he knows. He knows. He already breathed the gas in. _Dammit,_ he mentally curses, _I knew it. I fucking knew it! It happened! It happened! Someone is attacking!_

To Nicholas' horror, the door is locked tight. He pounds on it, as the rest of the students crowd around him, pushing and shoving. Nicholas was about to try kicking it, but not only was he lacking room, but… fatigue began to overtake him.

Knowing it was too late, Nicholas opens his mouth. "Sleeping gas, huh…" he mutters. His arms are tired as they pound on the door, as they eventually fall limp to his side. Loud _thuds_ can be heard from behind, and he knows what's happening. People are already passing out. And he's about to.

As his eyelids finally shut, he hears one last thing, over the intercom.

"Upupupu…"

* * *

**END PROLOGUE**

* * *

[The SYOC has ended! Thank you for the great characters! The first chapter will hopefully go up soon, but I may be busy over the next few days as I get ready for vacation. Don't worry, I'm bringing my computer, so if I get time I'll write.]

_**/ROSTER:**_

_**1\. NICHOLAS WHITE | ULTIMATE COMMANDER | A DINGUS WITH SWEET SHADES**_

_**2\. ANNIE MERITUA | ULTIMATE PACIFIST | JOKERSMAZE  
**_

_**3\. GABRIEL STEIN | ULTIMATE ENGINEER | LONELY YELLOW ROSE  
**_

_**4\. DAIKI TACHIBANA | ULTIMATE BOUNTY HUNTER | LOSTINTHEBEATS  
**_

_**5\. RYOKO TSUKATANI | ULTIMATE POETESS | APEXUTOPIA  
**_

_**6\. HOSHIKO HANAZAWA | ULTIMATE VIOLINIST | SAKURAMORICHAN  
**_

_**7\. SEYMOUR WEST | ULTIMATE JOURNALIST | PSISOMETHING  
**_

_**8\. BERT WASHINGTON | ULTIMATE MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER | INTEGRAS  
**_

_**9\. SHIORI YOSHIDA | ULTIMATE COMPOSER | BLUEMOONBUTTERFLY  
**_

_**10\. KINZOKU MITSUKO | ULTIMATE ROBOTICIST | THE UTTER HAPPENSTANCE  
**_

_**11\. ZÉPHYRINE GIROUX | ULTIMATE CARD GAMER | IFTIMEWASSTILL  
**_

_**12\. HIBIKI YUKATA | ULTIMATE HAIRDRESSER | SHADEDLYHT  
**_

_**13\. HIKARU MOMOKO | ULTIMATE VOLLEYBALL PLAYER | CAPTAINQUACKIN  
**_

_**14\. HIKARI TENNOYAMA | ULTIMATE MOUNTAIN CLIMBER | DASHUNTERMAN  
**_

_**15\. DURION PAZURU | ULTIMATE ? | BILLYBIOBOB  
**_

_**16\. WILLIAM TRICHER | ULTIMATE CHEATER | NELLISTABLE  
**_

_**17\. RINA TAKAHASHI | ULTIMATE ALPINE SKIER | HAKUNA HINATA**_

* * *

[A/N: Is it weird to hit 1,749 words in your SYOC prologue before even getting to the author's note part? Oh well who cares not me ha. I've tried doing an SYOC a good few times now on another account, failed miserably, and now I am deciding to do it again because WHY NOT. Maybe this one'll actually finish. Maybe. Who knows. But, uh, I guess that's it. Give me your OCs. Go. Goooo. SYOC ends when I feel like it so you probably have a lot of time.]


	2. Chapter 1: Awakening

**[A/N: Sorry for the wait! Replies to reviews at the bottom.]**

**[Edit: Hikari Tennoyama is now referred to as Tennoyama, rather than Hikari, to avoid confusion.]**

* * *

The first thing he noticed was the cold.

The next thing was the moisture on his face.

Third, the pattering of rain against… metal? Concrete? Judging by the hard, rocky surface beneath him, it must've been concrete. Maybe pavement…

Finally, it was the sounds of multiple voices slurred together, slowly coming into focus.

Confusion had overtaken Nicholas White. Consciousness returns to him, as his dark brown eyebrows were drawn together, eyelids fluttering open. Emerald green eyes are revealed from underneath. A droplet of rain suddenly splashes on his head, nearly getting into his eyes. Grunting in response, Nicholas shields his eyes with a hand. Worried and disoriented, Nicholas glances around, trying to take in his surroundings, and make some sense of the situation.

Pillows of large grey clouds had gathered above Nicholas, wherever he was, blocking out a pitch black midnight sky. Cold splatters of rain hit Nicholas and the road around him, in a steady pitter-patter. The whispering of a breeze in the air sent shivers through Nicholas, making his jacket flap about. Tall apartments and condos littered the area, but from his current position, could see the tops clearly. Little restaurants and shops were around, too. Thankfully, there were powered streetlamps, brightening the street—but oddly enough, they felt out of place. Lights were out as far as Nicholas could see, and aside from the voices around him, it was dead quiet. It didn't feel right at all.

Water soaked Nicholas' clothing. His dark blue suit seemed much heavier thanks to it, he noticed as he moved his arm to support his body. Nicholas slowly got to his feet, straightening out his grey paisley tie, and fixing the collar of his charcoal grey dress shirt. Ensuring the jacket was buttoned, his eyes gander over to the group of people, seeing just who they were. To his surprise, a large group of unfamiliar teenagers stood before him, scattered around on the long stretch of road. Breathing out frosty air, Nicholas wraps his arms around himself and approaches them.

"Hey!" Nicholas calls out, authoritatively. Multiple heads are swiftly turned.

"Oh, look who's awake." a tall male says, sarcastically. Decent muscle definition was on him, with broad shoulders, and long arms and legs. His hazel eyes carried an empty, irritated stare. On his person was a baby blue button-up under a black cardigan, with the top few buttons undone. A rose red tie hung loosely around his neck. Black slacks joined the outfit, with black dress shoes tightly hugging his feet. A messy mop of white hair sat on his head, with bangs lazily swept to his right.

"Hey! We're all together now!" a shorter girl cheers. She was a little chubby, though not overweight. Like the male before her, her eyes were a simple brown. A few freckles decorated her face. She wore a school uniform, with a grey skirt running down to her knees, and a white shirt tucked into it. An open black hoodie was overtop the uniform, seemingly too big for her, with the sleeves going right past her hands.

"'Scuse me." someone says, raising his voice over the rain, as he walks up to Nicholas. He was tall, and bulky, with some muscle. Rather intimidating. He wore an open brown bomber jacket, over a yellow t-shirt, and black jeans. Sporty white and green sneakers were on his feet. A small silver chain necklace hung from his neck. Also, he carried a satchel bag, as well. "Can I get your name?"

"You don't think there's a better place to do this?" Nicholas asks, raising a brow. "I'm all for introductions, but…" He moves his arm out, motioning around him, and in specific, the storm.

"Something wrong with the storm?" the male grins, "Just a little rain, y'know? It's okay to step outta your comfort zone every now and then."

Nicholas sighs. _What's with this guy…?_

"Nicholas," he eventually introduces himself, digging into his suit, before pulling a badge out, and showing him. "Tokyo PD. You're giving me yours too, yeah?"

"Huh. A cop, eh…" the other nods, in thought. "I'm Seymour West. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

**-SEYMOUR WEST-**

_A male with a tall and bulky frame. Short blond hair rests on his head, with brown eyes. A little bit of stubble adorns his face. His outfit consists of a brown bomber jacket over a yellow t-shirt, black jeans, white and green sneakers, and a silver chain necklace. Carries a satchel bag. Seymour's eyes seem to have bags underneath them…_

"Right. Can we go inside somewhere now?" Nicholas deadpans.

"You don't think we tried?" Seymour chuckles. "It's all locked."

"…everything?" Nicholas blinks.

"Everything." Seymour nods.

_Shit…_

Nicholas rubs his temples with one hand, looking around. The four-lane road stretched on for miles, with seemingly no end in sight, both directions. Worries begin piling up in his head, as he thinks about what could happen. If the group stays in this storm for so long, they're bound to get sick.

"Seymour!" Nicholas suddenly calls out. "What's even going on? Where are we?"

"Couldn't tell you," Seymour replies. "Never been here… Looks like New York or somethin'."

"Well, I don't think we're in America…" Nicholas scratches his neck.

It's at this point when Nicholas notices an odd building just down the road a bit. It looked to be about thirty or forty stories into the air, much like the ones around it, but this one stood out. At the end of the block, and directly on the corner, there was a tall fountain, with water spewing out of something Nicholas couldn't quite tell from the distance. Spotlights surrounded it, as well as stone bricks. Some being in different color made a walkway to the entrance of the building, where a black and white overhang with intricate designs hung about eight feet off the ground, over many glass doors. To the right of the doors was another walkway, and a small office. The actual building was in the shape of an L, with the long part behind the overhang, and the shorter being on its left. It shined with black and white crystals, looking like a chess board. On the overhang, Nicholas can make out the word 'HOTEL' written in large, golden stones.

Without saying another word to the group, Nicholas decides to cautiously approach it. Keeping his hands ready to move, and his legs loose, he paces towards the building. He hears Seymour ask where he's going from behind, but pays him no mind. A few others ask the same, before a girl comes up to him.

"Hey, where're ya going?" she asks. It was the chubby one, Nicholas realizes. Her voice had quieted down.

"You should go back," Nicholas warns, nodding back to the group. "Checking out that building over there, god knows what's inside."

"What, you don't think I can handle myself?" she pouts. "Who are you, anyway? You seem all… proper."

"My name's Nicholas," the cop introduces himself once more, "Tokyo PD. And you?"

"Hoshiko," the girl replies, smiling. "Wow, PD… that's, police department, right? I'm just a violinist, heh…"

**-HOSHIKO ?-**

**ULTIMATE VIOLINIST**

_An optimistic, childish girl. For her age, she was a bit shorter than average, and had a bit of weight to her, though not near overweight. Straight brown hair came down to her shoulders, and a little red ribbon was worn in the right side of her hair. Freckles adorned her face. Like the majority of the group so far, she had eyes the color of chocolate. A simple school outfit consisting of a pale grey skirt and arctic white shirt was her clothes, under a black hoodie that seemed to be just a bit too big for the girl._

"Hey, nothing wrong with that." Nicholas says, as the duo near the hotel. "You sure you still want to come with?"

"Well, if she ain't, y'better make room for me!"

Another voice suddenly sends the two turning around in shock. Standing before them, grinning, is another girl, appearing to be one of the people from the group. "My apologies, I didn't want to leave the two of you alone. How am I supposed to know what y'all were gonna get inta?" she says, with her hands on her hips.

_She's certainly bold…_

"…and who are you, again?" Nicholas asks, blinking.

"Th'name's Hikari Tennoyama!" she exclaims, making sure to put extra emphasis on 'Tennoyama'. Nicholas mutters something inaudible under his breath. "I'm the Ultimate Mountain Climber! Nice to meetcha two!"

**-HIKARI TENNOYAMA-**

**ULTIMATE MOUNTAIN CLIMBER**

_A lean, muscular, definitely bold girl. Her hair was short, and jet black in color. Some variety is shown, with pale blue orbs of eyes. Likely due to experience in the field of her talent, her body was well defined, probably not one of the best ideas to get into a fight with her. She wears a black bomber jacket, with the design of an eagle flying over a mountain on the back—the name 'TENNOYAMA' is atop it, while the words 'SHAKIN' HANDS WITH GOD' are below. Underneath it is a white undershirt, and blue denim jeans, as well as a pair of black fingerless gloves. Ski goggles rest on her head, and brown hiking boots on her feet._

"I'm Hoshiko," the violinist says, "Ultimate Violinist! And this is Nick, he's a cop!"

Meanwhile, Nicholas is just standing there, sighing.

_Great. Now I need to deal with two loud girls._

"Ehh, you don't talk much, hm?" Tennoyama says, turning to Nicholas. "C'mon, you're getting other people to introduce you, speak up!"

"Fine. Nicholas White," he says, rolling his eyes. He decides to pull out his badge again. "Tokyo PD, Ultimate Commander. Now, can we get out of the damn rain?"

"Pah! Who cares about the rain! It's nothing—" Tennoyama says, before getting cut off by a sudden, loud sneeze. "Argh. Still! Nothing!" she exclaims, raising her left index finger.

It's at this point that Nicholas notices something about this hand of hers.

"…uh, I think you're missing something there…" Nicholas says, blinking, looking at Tennoyama's ring finger. Or rather, lack of one.

Where a finger should stick out of her hands, there was none. The left ring finger was completely gone. Nothing but space.

"Ah, it's nothing!" Tennoyama shakes her head. "Quite literally, hm? Haha!" she laughs, prompting Nicholas to just sort of, back away.

"I'm gonna go on now…" he says, deciding to walk away from the scene. The two follow him.

"Hey, it's okay if I call you Nick, right?" Hoshiko asks, coming up next to Nicholas.

"Sure, whatever floats your boat." he replies, not caring an awful lot.

The trio finally make it to the hotel. They immediately go under the overhang, getting some much-needed shelter. Shivering, Nicholas' eyes scan the area, looking for anything that might be of interest, or possible danger.

"Look! It's so fancy inside!" Hoshiko exclaims, pressing her face against the glass doors.

"Come now, Hoshiko. Those might be dirty, y'know?" Tennoyama says, coming up next to the girl. "Wouldn't want to mess up that pretty face of yours."

"E-Eh? Pretty face!?" Hoshiko steps away, looking at Tennoyama, bewildered.

"Of course!" Tennoyama grins. "I couldn't _bear_ to see such a tragedy occur."

The two bicker back and forth, and Nicholas simply tunes them out, looking around some more. The fountain had a stone statue inside, in which the water came out of. To Nicholas' confusion, it seemed to be a two-tone teddy bear, spewing water out of its mouth. One half seemed innocent enough, with a black bead eye, but the other half felt a bit off. Evil. Was it the eye? The fact of how dark it was? Whatever it was, it sent chills down Nicholas' spine. Shaking his head, he walks away, continuing his little investigation.

It's then that he notices security cameras. In the left and right corners above the doors, a white camera with a red light on it hung. This seemed fine, after all, it was a hotel, and security was a necessity—but it was a little overkill. Looking around, there were cameras on each streetlamp, and on each of the traffic lights at the nearby intersection. Everywhere he looked, there was one. It didn't quite sit right, but Nicholas hoped it wouldn't be too big of a deal. Nicholas figured he was about done, and concluded the area was safe, until a voice had interrupted him.

"About time someone found some shelter."

Turning to the source, Nicholas finds it's the one in the black cardigan, with the shirt and tie. "You're welcome," he says to him, sarcastically.

"Yeah, yeah. So, who are you? You're acting like you're some sort of big deal around here, huh?" the other male says.

Nicholas goes through his introduction, whipping out the badge once again. It was getting a bit tiring, but, the guy was rubbing him the wrong way. Nicholas wasn't the biggest fan of his attitude so far.

"Right. Did you get in here yet?" he asks, walking to the doors.

"No, I was looking around first. And, eh, do I get your name or…?" Nicholas asks, trailing off.

"Do you need it?" he raises a brow. "Don't assume we're going to be best buddies or something, pal."

The teenager pushes on the doors, and luckily enough, they actually open. A smirk appears on his face, as he walks on in. Sighing, Nicholas follows, motioning for the others to do the same.

"Oi, who the hell does he think he is!?" Tennoyama says, angrily. She balls her hands into fists. "Bein' all stoic and rude like that…"

"Ignore it. He's right, we're probably _not_ going to be best buddies." Nicholas shrugs.

The trio enter the hotel's first floor. The reception area was exceptionally fancy, and looked like a ton of money went into it. A large chandelier hangs from the ceiling, over a potted plant, sitting in the middle of the room. Beige tiles took the floor, with darker beige lines breaking them up into diamond shapes. A black and white rug with floral designs was underneath the plant. More potted plants were on either side of the entrance, going straight ahead, making it appear like a hallway leading to the reception desk. On the right of the plant in the middle were a few mahogany steps leading up to a dining section, with a bar, and multiple tables set up. A long table with about fifteen chairs lay in the center of the brown carpet. Wooden fences are on either side of the stairs. Meanwhile, on the left, there was a hallway around a corner, couches for waiting, a few trolleys for luggage, and two large doors. The mystery man could not be found.

"That was quick, where'd that guy go?" Nicholas asks, furrowing his eyebrows.

"He's a fast one, eh?" Tennoyama chuckles. "Wonder where he ran off to…"

"…I didn't like him." Hoshiko frowns.

"Aw, don't you worry, I'll make sure he doesn't hurt ya!" Tennoyama pats Hoshiko on the back.

"Eheh…" Hoshiko laughs, awkwardly.

Tuning the two out, Nicholas walks around the reception area. To his surprise, the candles in the chandelier were lit, a contrast to the rest of the neighborhood. Behind the reception desk was a door, likely leading to some sort of staff room, which Nicholas didn't bother to open. Next to the cash register at the dining area was a silver door, and it could be assumed that was the kitchen. On the other side of the room, there were six elevators and a staircase around the corner. Aside from the lit chandelier, it looked completely abandoned, but yet populated—everything appeared to be so clean. It didn't feel right…

Eventually, Nicholas found a few maps behind the reception desk. "Hey!" he calls out to Hoshiko and Tennoyama, "Come here, I found some maps."

"Oi, lemme see this." Tennoyama says, coming over and climbing over the table with ease. Hoshiko stayed on the other side. Unfolding a map each, both Tennoyama and Nicholas read over the maps, trying to make some sense of where in the world they were.

To their confusion, most of the map looked to be deliberately scribbled out in black marker. The only part that was left visible was in the center of the map, where the words 'Downtown District' marked the name of the neighborhood. It was a long stretch of road, with lots of tall buildings, tourist attractions, and shops in it. Judging by what he saw outside earlier, Nicholas figured this must be the same area. But for some reason, a couple buildings had red circles around them. First of all, there was a random area outside the city, where a pathway from the district to it. And then there was the hotel.

"Tennoyama. Can I see your map?" Nicholas asks, turning to her. Already, he can tell that her map is the same.

"Best'a luck to ya, officer." Tennoyama says, giving him the map.

Putting both of them on the desk and flattening them out, Nicholas observes the two maps for any differences. He leans over them, putting his hands on the wall of the desk. Hoshiko looks at them too.

"Are they all like that?" she asks, puzzled. Her brown eyebrows are pulled together, as a curious, interested look lights up in her eyes.

"Tennoyama, check." Nicholas orders, reading over the maps more, despite there being not much else to be read.

"Wh- and who do you think you are, bossin' me around like that!?" Tennoyama protests, turning to Nicholas.

"Well, if I told you, I'd probably have to kill you." Nicholas mutters.

_Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Special Unit, that's who I am… that's a mouthful, isn't it?_

"Oh, shut up, you can't be _that_ special." Tennoyama rolls her eyes.

"Well, 'special' is in the name," Nicholas scratches his neck.

"Well, I guess that's the perks of being an Ultimate cop, eh?" Tennoyama jokes, before finally going to check the maps. She unfolds a few, with Nicholas looking over her shoulder. "Little space there, bud?"

Nicholas apologizes, stepping back. After a few moments of the two looking at maps, the entrance doors suddenly open.

"Ahh, that's _so_ much better!" a male voice exclaims. The source appeared to be a somewhat tall, and weighty kid, wearing skinny jeans and a t-shirt reading the words 'Just Bert-lieve in yourself' on it.

"A-ah, yes, very." another male says, quietly. "I-it's much… uh, it's… much warmer in here…" he eventually gets out, stuttering and stammering over his words. He's nearly six feet tall, with a thin body, wearing a cream white sweater, with horizontal navy stripes across the upper half. His jeans were a dark blue, and a dark brown, flat, newspaper cap rested on his head.

"You shouldn't be so quiet!" the other says, turning to him. He was seemingly about to go into a tangent about it, but out of the corner of his eye, he sees the trio at the desk. "…Oh! Why hello!"

…_must everyone be loud?_

"Hello," Nicholas waves. "And you two are…?"

"Ah, excuse me," the one with the 'Bert-lieve' shirt says, coming up to the desk. His stomach shook with each step. Once reaching Nicholas, he offers a hand. "I'm Bert Washington, the Ultimate Motivational Speaker! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

**-BERT WASHINGTON-**

**ULTIMATE MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER**

_A rather large-sized male. He was a bit on the tall side of things, and just slightly overweight. His clothes consisted of blue skinny jeans, a t-shirt with the words 'Just Bert-lieve in yourself'—a play on words?—printed onto it, and high-top basketball shoes. Bert's eyes were a sky blue, and long brown hair descended down past his shoulders._

"Much obliged—Nicholas White, by the way. Tokyo PD." Nicholas replies, shaking his hand.

Meanwhile, the other person Bert was with, had remained near the entrance, nervously picking at his nails, biting his lip. Beads of sweat rolled down his head, which he kept low, staring directly at the floor, not breaking contact.

"Gabe!" Bert calls out, waving him over. He's shocked into reality, shooting his head up from the ground. "Come on! You must say hello, you know?"

"B-b-b-b-b-b… buh…" the other simply stutters in response.

"Look! Here's what you must do, Gabe!" Bert says, with sudden newfound confidence. He marches over to the nervous teenager, putting his hands on his shoulders. "You have to _Bert-lieve_ in yourself! I- I mean, look at _me!_" he says, taking a hand off to motion to his body. The other looks at him, confused.

"You see, I Bert-lieve. And look at what a _handsome devil_ of a man I am today. You can be like this too!" he says, jabbing a finger in his face. He backs up a bit, before gulping.

"I… um, okay." he finally says, taking a deep breath. A curious look appears in his eyes, as he approaches the desk. "E-excuse me, sir… you said you were… 'Tokyo PD'?"

"Correct." Nicholas says, reaching into his suit and pulling out the badge, showing him.

"Woooow…" he says, in astonishment. His eyes widen, leaning in to get a better look.

"Uh… can I get your name, there?" Nicholas asks. "I guess you already heard mine, so…"

"O-Oh!" he says, nearly jumping. "I-I'm Gabe! E-er, Gabriel! Gabriel Stein… um…" he nods, trailing off.

"D'ya have an Ultimate, or what?" Tennoyama asks.

"S-Sorry!" Gabriel apologizes, wincing. "I'm the Ultimate Engineer…"

**-GABIREL STEIN-**

**ULTIMATE ENGINEER**

_A male standing at about 5' 11", seemingly very thin and frail. His eyes were pale blue, with a few dark specks within them. Short, messy silver-blond hair sat on his head, with white streaks dyed into it. Gabriel's cream-white sweater had navy blue stripes going across the upper half, with darker navy jeans underneath. A brown newspaper cap covered his hair, being atop it._

Continuing the little social event, Tennoyama and Hoshiko introduce themselves.

"Um… I'm Hoshiko Hanazawa, Ultimate Violinist…"

"And I'm Hikari Tennoyama! Ultimate Mountain Climber!"

_Hanazawa, eh…_

"So what're we looking at here?" Bert asks, coming up and looking at the maps, leaning over the desk.

"Well, I'm assuming these are maps of the city," Nicholas replies, showing Bert one. "But they're all scribbled out…"

"Hmm…" Bert hums, in thought. "Ahah! Look at this! There's a few of these red circles…" Bert points to one.

"Yeah, we saw those," Nicholas says, "I don't know what they're supposed to be…"

"Where are the circles around?" Hoshiko asks, tilting her head.

"There's one around us, and one somewhere outside the city."

"Us? The hotel?"

"Mhm." Nicholas nods.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to find out why, eh?" Tennoyama says, stuffing a map into her jacket pocket. "C'mon! We'll search this whole damned place if we have ta'!"

"B-b-but… Miss, wouldn't that take a while…?" Gabriel pipes up.

"Who cares!" Tennoyama pumps a fist into the air.

"Yeah!" Bert copies the motion. "Let's go!"

With that, Tennoyama runs off, Bert in tow. They go around the corner to the elevators. Nicholas sighs, as more yelling is heard afterward.

_Might as well make sure they aren't getting themselves into trouble._

"Come on, we should stick together," Nicholas says to Hoshiko and Gabriel, following after the duo.

Tennoyama and Bert are found in an open elevator, seemingly quite upset about something.

"Only three buttons!" Bert complains. "What is this!? There must be more than one floor! Why can we even access the roof!?"

Raising a brow, Nicholas enters the elevator. "What're you talking about?"

Sure enough, Bert's words were true. Three buttons. One labelled 'G', one '2', and one 'R', with 'roof' written underneath. Hoshiko and Gabriel enter the spacious elevator, all fitting in easily. It appeared to be made for a lot of people.

"Hey! Someone took out all the buttons…" Hoshiko frowns.

"Th-that's weird… wh-why would they do that?" Gabriel asks.

"Well, it don't look like anyone ripped 'em out or something," Tennoyama says, "As if it were always like that… ain't that something?"

"Oohhh… this hotel's giving me some bad vibes…" Bert says, worried. "Just keep Bert-lieving, everyone!"

"Wh-what do you mean by Bert-lieve?" Gabriel asks.

"Bert-_lieve!_ You know, believe, Bert? Bert-lieve? Eh? Ehh?" Bert explains, expecting a response out of Gabriel.

"O-o-o-o-oh… I see…" Gabriel nods, "Sorry…" After that, he begins picking at his fingers again.

A few moments of unnecessary banter later, the group eventually decides to begin looking around. They agree on pressing the button reading '2', going up to the second floor.

* * *

"Oh my gosh, this dress is so cute!"

This is what Annie Meritua and Shiori Yoshida have been having to put up with while the others searched the hotel. The rest of the group had split, wandering off into random directions, trying to get a sense of where they were. Three girls had split into their own little group, and had eventually found a clothing shop, just a few minutes away from the hotel.

"I don't know if I'm feeling these colors, though." Hikaru Momoko frowns, holding up a short, rather _revealing_ dress, split into a monochrome color scheme, half black, and half white.

**-HIKARU MOMOKO-**

**ULTIMATE VOLLEYBALL PLAYER**

_A girl with an athletic build, standing at five foot seven. Some muscle volume can be seen on her bones. Hikaru's eyes are hidden by a pair of dark blue sunglasses, with extremely long jet black hair, tied up in a messy ponytail. She wears a pair of dark green athletic shorts, with a bright red t-shirt underneath a small, soft black jacket, with a hood. Oddly enough, some scars can be seen on her legs…_

"It looks very nice," Annie Meritua smiles, gently putting out a few fingers to feel the material of the dress. She does so hesitantly, making sure to not make contact with Hikaru, or ruin the dress in any way.

**-ANNIE MERITUA-**

**ULTIMATE PACIFIST**

_A short, delicate-looking girl. Annie has short, golden blonde hair, with a few long bangs swept to her left, while a little cowlick stands out from it. Her eyes were an innocent sky blue, and her clothes appeared to be very Lolita-based—wearing a maroon red vest with puffed shoulders over a white blouse, with a red ribbon tied around her neck. Little red bracelets matching the vest's color were on the girl's wrists. As for the rest of her clothing, she wears a black skirt, with black stockings, having a yellow strip around the tips. Just underneath them was the design of a yellow scale. On her feet are ankle-high boots, with the same design as the stockings. Overall, Annie looks like a kind, gentle girl._

Shiori Yoshida had simply nodded, in agreement. It appeared she didn't have anything else to say, and instead, she opted for looking around the clothing store the three were in, promptly spacing out.

**-SHIORI YOSHIDA-**

**ULTIMATE COMPOSER**

_A short girl of average weight. Her eyes were a dark violet, with light brown hair cascading all the way down to her lower back. A white headband rests on her forehead. Shiori wears a yellow button-up with a brown bow around the white peter pan collar, with the sleeves going down halfway. It's tucked into a waist-high black skirt, which was over white knee socks, and black dress shoes._

"So, what, you guys ain't getting anything?" Hikaru asks, putting a hand on her hip, tilting her head in confusion. "I dunno what's going on, but like, I don't see any security."

"Um… actually, haven't you seen all the cameras?" Shiori pipes up. She shyly points to one of the corners of the room, over on the other side of where the girls were, which held men's clothing. Sticking out of the corner is a sleek, matte black security camera, with a bright red light. The actual lights of the store were on, which was odd, considering most of the neighbourhood.

"…maybe." Hikaru mutters, crossing her arms, looking away from where Shiori pointed.

"I noticed those too…" Annie says, biting her lip softly, dipping her head low. Her eyes dart to the side. "There's an awful lot. I do wonder why…?"

"Cameras shcameras," Hikaru scoffs, rolling her eyes. "Who cares, I don't see any cops."

"This doesn't feel right…" Shiori murmurs, holding her arm awkwardly.

"It's good you're calm, but… can you really be so indifferent?" Annie asks Hikaru, quietly. "I mean…" she sighs, trailing off. "No, um, I'm sorry…"

"Why not?" Hikaru shoots back.

"Do you know where we are…?" Annie asks, curious.

"Nope," Hikaru shrugs. "Why be all worried? We'll be fine, trust me."

"How do you know?" Shiori then asks.

"'Cuz I'll protect you guys." Hikaru smiles, warmly.

And with that, just a bit of worry lifted from the trio.

* * *

The elevator eventually took Nicholas and his group to the hotel's second floor. They had been exploring for a little while now, and had a decent layout stuck in their head. The floor consisted of some rooms for visitors to stay. It had a modern feel to it, with arctic white walls, and ink black doors. Every so often, two doors would be next to each other, as the two rooms were connected. The floor was tiled, with a black and white checkered design. Spotlights were built into the ceiling, lighting it up. The hallway would eventually split into an open circle area, with two other hallways, making a letter Y out of the floor, but oddly enough, the others were blocked off by intimidating locks and chains. However, halfway between the elevators and the area, the hall turned left, with yet another hallway, going left and right—but this one had tall glass windows, showing the darkness outside. Rain hit the window at fast speeds, and the wind can be heard hitting it as well.

There was just something odd, though.

All the doors in the initial hallway were only marked by a number. But in the one with the windows, each one had a steel panel bolted into them. Written in pixelated font, was a name. Nicholas found his own name on one, plus a little pixel drawing of himself. The others had found their own too. Accompanied with the group of five, are another twelve signed doors. Nicholas tries opening his door, but, to no avail—it was locked.

"My door was locked, too…" Hoshiko says, coming up to Nicholas, frowning.

"Just something else to add to the mysteries, huh?" Nicholas mutters, examining his door.

"How long till one of you finally notices me?"

A familiar voice suddenly strikes through the air. Raising a brow, Nicholas turns to the source, and a familiar face is paired with the voice. The rude one from earlier, in the black cardigan, he comes out of a dark, shadowy corner, hands pocketed.

"No 'hello' or anything?" Nicholas says, staring him in the eye. "How long were you just gonna watch us from that corner, huh?"

"I can do what I want, cop." he rolls his eyes. "That is you, right? The cop?"

Nicholas nods, silently. His stare slowly begins turning into a glare.

"Right…" he nods. He looks at the others of the group, now standing beside Nicholas. "What about you guys? I don't believe we've been properly introduced."

"'Scuse me?" Tennoyama says, going right up to the man, getting in his face. "Y'all're tellin' me you're just gonna walk right up in here like you're all big, ask us for our names 'n not even give us _yours?_"

"You won't comply till I give you mine, huh?" he sighs. "Okay, play it your way. Daiki."

**-DAIKI ?-**

**ULTIMATE ?**

_A well-built male. Seemingly rather distant, and introverted. Standing at about six feet, with broad shoulders, and rather long limbs. Daiki's face is shaped much like a heart, with a roundish nose. His hair is all over the place, colored a soft white, with a Korean style flair. His messy bangs fall just short of his eyes, swept slightly to his right. However, some bangs shot out or curled more than others, giving a heavily layered look. As for the rest of his hair, it simply juts out in random directions. The boy's eyes are a bright hazel, and if one squinted, could see he had little flecks of gold around his pupil. It gives off an awfully… distant aura. Daiki has long eyelashes, and to match his hair, white eyebrows. Unlike his hair, it's treated properly, trimmed neatly. As for clothing, he wears a clean, baby blue dress shirt with the top few buttons undone under a loose, rose red tie. And on top of that, was a black cardigan, with pockets over each abdomen. A necklace can be seen around his neck, the pendant being a shark tooth. As for the rest of his clothing, he wears a pair of neatly pressed black slacks, and seemingly tight black dress shoes._

"And now we gotta introduce ourselves, huh?" Tennoyama asks.

"Would be nice, I gave you my name…" Daiki says, crossing his arms.

"_Ai yi yi, how long is this gonna go on for!?"_

"Wha—" Nicholas turns, looking for the source of a very sudden, and blunt voice. His eyes fall on a TV screen bolted into the wall, showing static.

A blaring siren suddenly sounded from the hotel's speakers. The group swiftly turned to the TV, listening intently. Eventually it was silenced, as red flags began to rise within everyone.

"What the hell was that?" Nicholas asks, eyes darting around the hall.

It only took seconds for the next part of the situation to begin. With a click, the lights vanished, plunging the entire floor into pitch black _darkness._ The few rays of moonlight peeking through the clouds were the only source of light the students had. Nicholas' eyes widened as adrenaline kicked into his system. Scared yelps were heard from the girls of the group, while an annoyed scoff came from who must've been Daiki.

"Ahh, hello? Is this thing on? Mic test, mic test…"

Following the siren, a voice comes out of the speakers, resounding through the hallway It was a childish, oddly _innocent_ sound, which may have calmed some, but only served to send chills down the group's spines.

"Oi, what's going on here!?" Tennoyama shouts, furiously. A loud thud is heard from the ground, seemingly near Tennoyama's last known position before the blackout, which was enough to send vibrations through everyone's bodies. "Are y'all gon' show yourself or what!?"

"Wonderful, we're golden." the voice speaks. Nicholas runs over to a nearby window, using the moonlight to guide him. Looking outside, he sees nothing but darkness—the streetlights had went out, too. "Can y'all do me a favor? Pwetty pwease?"

* * *

"Who the hell are you!?" Hikaru shouts angrily, stomping on the ground in the pitch black clothing store.

"Hikaru, please, calm down!" Annie says, raising her voice, but keeping it from going too high.

"Oh god…" Shiori whispers.

"I want you all to come to the hotel's rooftop." the voice continues, in a serious tone. With another click, the lights suddenly turn back on, but not all of them. Instead of being a bright white, they were a dim red, as well as a few streetlights outside.

* * *

"Ugh…" Kinzoku Mitsuko grits her teeth, in anger. She kicks aside a chair in the café she had found, knocking it to the ground.

"It's time for you to get your answers," the voice spoke, echoing through the café.

* * *

"Hm…" Durion Pazuru stands with a few others, taking cover under a grocery store's overhang, outside. Rain pours down like mad, wind throwing around litter from the streets.

"I guess it's about time, eh?" William Tricher chuckles.

"You aren't worried?" Ryoko Tsukatani asks. "Who knows what we're going to face on this rooftop."

"Of course I am." William replies, shrugging. "We'll just have to be careful."

"I suppose." Ryoko murmurs.

"You should, too," William says, "You've already had an," William pauses, "accident, huh?"

"Hmph." Ryoko's hand goes up to her left eye. While most would expect to touch skin, she felt cotton. Covering her eye was a white eyepatch. "I'll be fine."

"Upupu…" the childish voice continued…

"Well, this is weird," Hibiki Yukata says, "We should get moving, though!"

"Of course." Ryoko nods in agreement. "I do not wish to see the consequences of failing to comply…"

* * *

The spotlights in the hallway Nicholas and the others had turned back on, but were nothing more than a dim, red light, sending chills down Nicholas' back. Only a few were on, and they seemed to be leading to the elevators.

"Moment of truth." Daiki smirks. Saying no more, he crosses his arms, and leaves.

"O-o-o-oh dear…" Gabriel sputters out, shaking in his spot. He watches Daiki walk out, biting his lip.

"H-hey, it's- it's going to be alright, guys!" Bert says, worriedly. "Just remember to Bert-lieve, right?"

"Oi, what's wrong with you all!?" Tennoyama exclaims, "This is it! We're gonna find who put us here, or whatever the hell's goin' on, and beat the shit out of them!"

"Or, we can talk this out, and not do anything to get us killed." Nicholas sighs.

"D-do you think we're gonna get killed!?" Hoshiko asks, frightened.

"I'd hope not, but, from the looks of it, this seems like a hostage situation of sorts…" Nicholas mutters, looking down, trying to think.

"Now hurry and get your asses over here! I ain't got all day… _hurry the hell up!_" the voice finishes.

_So this is it._ Nicholas thinks. _Something feels off. Do I know this voice? This feels familiar, but… I don't understand… a case? Wasn't I working on a case?_

_What the hell was it?_

* * *

[A/N: And here we go, the first chapter is finally finished! Sorry about the wait, I've been kinda busy the past few weeks, school, holidays, ugh. Not to mention I'm sort of lazy. Sort of. Just a bit. I'm sorry ;-;

Anyways, I believe I managed to fit each character in there, minus one that we should be getting by next chapter. If I didn't get you in, sorry, probably by next chapter. I tried to do something different this time around, cuz well, is every character _really_ going to give this random person their whole name and Ultimate? Trying to keep it realistic by keeping to first names and not mentioning talent, but everything will be revealed eventually. Oh, and yes, we have a city as our setting, haven't been keeping up with SYOCs recently so I hope that's unique ._. Oh well. Lots of opportunities here, hopefully I'll manage to finish this and use all the ideas I have(I have a lot). I may as well reply to reviews now, huh?

Hakuna Hinata: I try, I try. Thanks!

ProfessionalCatFan: Thank you! You might wanna get ready for long waits for updates, it takes me a while to write. Sorry about that.

Lonely Yellow Rose: I really thought Gabriel was gonna be a master debater ;-; huehue

bluemoonbutterfly: Tyyy, I'm probably gonna need it.

IfTimeWasStill: Oh yeah, that's just how I write, I guess. Mystery is awesome. Thanks thoughh

ShadedLyht: Hibiki is definitely going to be used a lot, thanks for him.

Aaaand done, finally, time to upload. Seeya in like 10 years when I make the next chapter.


	3. Chapter 2: Reality

_[A/N: *apologizes intensely for wait*]_

* * *

The howling of wind. The steady rhythm of rain. The rolling thunder in the distance. The chatter amongst the students.

This is what is to be heard on the hotel's rooftop.

About fifteen minutes since the odd voice's announcement had passed. Most of the students had obeyed the orders, and now stood on the building. The tension in the air was thick enough a knife would have an easy time cutting right through. In an attempt to rid of it, they had been talking, trying to convince both themselves, and others, that it'll all be alright.

"Well, looks like almost everyone's here, guys!" Bert exclaimed. "It'll be okay! Just Bert-lie—"

"Can you please shut the hell up?" an apathetic girl sitting in a wheelchair asks, bitterly.

"Wha—" Bert stops in his tracks, shocked. His eyes widen. "Excuse me!? I am _trying_ to raise everyone's _spirits—_"

"Bert, listen to her." Nicholas orders, rolling his eyes.

"You too!?" Bert swiftly turns to Nicholas, a hurt look in his eyes.

Eventually, the last few students arrive. They chat back and forth, as the group awaits further events.

It's not long before it all starts.

"Aww, y'all actually came!"

The childlike voice from the announcement moments before echoes through the city, sounding way too close for comfort. Everyone turns to the voice, and standing on top of a helipad a distance away, was the source. The seventeen students rush to stand before it.

A toy teddy bear—_What the hell?_, Nicholas thought_—_was seen standing at about three feet tall in the center. It had a monochrome color scheme, with an evil red eye on the black half, and a normal black bead on the white side. Nicholas can't shake the feeling that he seen this bear before. There was something about it that rubbed him the wrong way, but he can't exactly put his finger on it. Figuring he has worse problems, he tries to just shrug it off. He has a hard time doing so.

"Wait, what?" a girl in a lime green ski jacket says, baffled. "A bear?"

"Monokuma, to be exact!" the bear says, raising a claw into the air as he introduces himself. "Y'see, children, it's Monokuma because I'm half black, half white, and—"

"You're the bear from that statue." Nicholas suddenly cuts him off, realizing where he saw the bear before. And yet, he didn't find satisfaction in this. Surely enough, aside from the color, it had to have been the same bear. The eyes were the determining factor. But, no, no, that's not it, there's more to this bear.

_There's more to this bear._

"Wow, great observation!" Monokuma says, clapping with his tiny little robotic paws as he turns to the officer, "You shoulda been a detective rather than friggin' Special Unit."

"How the hell do you know I'm in Special Unit?" Nicholas raises a brow, worried. He steps back, _no one's supposed to know that, what the fuck?_

"You think I went through all the time to get y'all together and didn't bother puttin' at least a _little_research inta who I'm kidnappin'?" Monokuma replies, with a knowing grin. A few malicious snickers escape his robotic mouth.

A few people visibly flinch at this. Hoshiko, right next to Nicholas bites her lip, he notices. Tennoyama choked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"What do you mean research!?" she exclaims, nails digging into her flesh as her hands instinctively curl into fists. Her missing ring finger could easily be seen.

"Research. I know what y'all did." Monokuma says, ever so simply. He crosses his arms over his chest, puffing it out.

Tennoyama goes absolutely silent, not another word escaping her mouth.

"Shall I get to the point, now?" Monokuma asks.

It's mostly quiet. No one dares to say a word. Fear was beginning to instill itself inside the students, thanks to uncertainty of the situation about to begin. Humans are afraid of what they don't know.

"Uuu… y'all are scared, I can feel it," Monokuma giggles.

"Get on with it." Nicholas glares.

"Please, do…" Seymour says, a notepad and pen in hand. He watches Monokuma closely, ready to start scribbling down words as soon as he starts talking.

"Y'all are about to play a little game of mine. As you should know by now, you've been kidnapped." Most of the students just couldn't shake the chills running through their body at this statement, nor the thoughts of _"Oh, shit."_

"It ain't just a little thing for ransom, no no no. I want you to find a way to escape on your own. I've set up some rules for you."

It's then the students hear a steady rhythm in the sky that wasn't the rain. It sounded an awful lot like the chopping of a helicopter's blades. With a sudden burst of air hitting the rooftop, they turn to the source of the sound, bewildered, confirming their initial thoughts.

"Is that a helicopter!?" Bert exclaims, with widened eyes. He points at it with a shaky arm.

Much to the shock of the rooftop's residents, a black helicopter with the front painted to look like the open mouth of a shark flew just above. The window was tinted so not to show the pilot. Underneath, a large box wrapped like a Christmas gift was tied. It drops, and as if nothing even happened, the chopper turns away.

"Hey!" Seymour shouts, as loud as his vocal chords would let him, trying to overpower the helicopter's engine, and blades. "Come back! Come back, hey, get us out of here!"

Everyone began yelling.

"Come back!"

"Where are you going!?"

"Who are you!?"

"We're still here!"

"_Help!_"

But, alas, the students' requests were to no avail. The mysterious vehicle flew off and disappeared behind a taller building.

And now, a box in colorful wrapping rested in the middle of the helipad. The students are absolutely silent, still processing whatever just happened.

"Figured I'd drop us a little care package," Monokuma says nonchalantly, walking up to it. "Would help us out a little." Sharp blades pop out of the robotic bear's claws, as he begins swiping at the wrapping wildly, tearing it apart, even cutting open the cardboard underneath. Revealed inside the mystery box was a pile of electronic devices, each with a few words marked on the back. Monokuma called everyone up to take one, and so they did, finding that the words weren't just words, but rather their names. It looked a lot like a smartphone, and just under their names, is the shield of Hope's Peak Academy. They had heard of these; aren't they called ElectroIDs? Under the devices were a pile of cardkeys, with a name marked on each one. Each of the teenagers picked up both an ElectroID and a cardkey.

They were ordered to power the devices, and so the students did, using the power button just below the screen. For a moment, their name and talent appeared. It changed into a screen with many different options, but each had a line striking through it, implying they couldn't be chosen. However, one was lit up, lacking a line.

**ESCAPE**

"Press the Escape button, please." Monokuma says. A keypad appears upon tapping it, using the touch screen. "This is your way of escape, children. Throughout your stay, you'll be given hints to three different riddles. Upon finding the correct answer, each of you must enter it. And if you win? One final riddle awaits. You can then escape, all together."

"And what's the catch?" Seymour asks, convinced something behind the scenes is occurring.

"I like this kid." Monokuma grins. "I won't just give you hints to the riddles."

"Pray tell, little bear, how do you expect us to achieve the answers to these, _riddles?_" a girl asks. She did her best to glare intimidatingly at Monokuma, but considering the fact that there was an eyepatch covering her left eye, it was a challenge.

"Upupu. Have any of you ever killed a man? Cuz, well, you're about to."

A round of shocked gasps rings out from the crowd. They all look at each other, confused beyond belief.

"In order for me to give you the hints necessary, _you will have to murder another student._"

The bear spoke ever so calmly. Like it was just another day.

"H- Hold on, _what!?_" the girl in the green jacket exclaims, eyes widening. Her body trembles in horror. The crowd explodes into uproarious objection, but the toy just continues.

"You will be given the tools necessary. Knives in the cafeteria, guns from the gun shop, chainsaws in the hardware stores, cars in the parking lots, surgical tools in the hospitals…"

"Wh- what the _hell_ are you talking about!?" Hikari exclaims. She steps towards Monokuma, hands balled into solid fists. "Who the fuck are you, even!?"

"Of course, it has to be the perfect kill." Monokuma continues, ignoring the girl. "You have to get away with it. Rules are, you can kill up to two people, but otherwise, go nuts."

Nicholas steps away from everybody. As the bear spoke, pain began to strike through his head, symptoms of a migraine showing. Rubbing his temples with his left thumb and middle finger, he tries to rid himself of the pain. His mind was going a million thoughts per minute, as something about all of this felt extremely, extremely wrong. And yet _right._ Familiar? Would that be the word? Nicholas supposed so, but how? He hadn't seen this bear in his life.

Right?

For a split second, Nicholas' thoughts would drift to an old name he heard once before. _But, what does _she_ have to do with this? Nothing, right…?_

"Have fun, boys and girls. You're dismissed."

* * *

The entire situation was rather displeasing. And complicated. Riddles? Murder? Unfortunate. Being the Ultimate Pacifist, Annie Meritua wouldn't be the biggest fan of her circumstances.

After the events on the rooftop, the students broke off and did their own thing. Some were seen still in groups, but for the most part, everyone was alone. Like Annie. She'd probably patrol the streets later, though. The girl knew that each of the students wouldn't just get along, especially now, and she was there to keep the peace.

_Keep the peace, Annie._

In Annie's hands were the items Monokuma gave out. She already used the key, finding that it let her unlock and lock a door in the hotel with her name on it. Supposedly, this was her room to stay. At least the bear gave everyone a bed to sleep in. It was quite the fancy room, too. The first thing Annie had noticed was a comfy king-sized bed taking up most of the room, first seen to the left of the door. A huge white blanket covered the mattress of the same color, with four black pillows—two on both sides—and a little plushie of the students' captor sitting cutely in front of them. On the wooden headboard behind the pillows, there were two lamps sticking out, a dim light from each illuminating the room. A lighter-colored wood nightstand was on the bed's right, while on its left was a walk in closet, extending to the end of the bed. But, you could walk around the outside of the closet, leading to a hallway with two doors. One at the very end was locked, while the door on the right wall led to a bathroom. On that very same wall was a large window, showing the new city outside, now full of lights, with little rain quietly hitting the window. Opposite of the bed there was a chair and desk, all wood. Each wall was colored cream.

Annie stood at the window, looking outside. The storm had quieted way down, becoming nothing but a quiet fall of rain. Somewhat of a chilly draft came through the closed glass, but it was rather nice. She couldn't help but stop, thinking of what her life would be like now. Is it true? This whole game? Stuck with no way out except to kill her colleagues? That can't be right. It's a city. That can't be the only way out. They must be able to make it to an airport, or _something,_ right?

Her lips curve into a frown at the thought.

* * *

"Wouldn't eat that, if I were you." Seymour West warns. Him and some others had been looking around the hotel, stopping at a food court. The journalist was half watching the others, and half watching a video from his camera.

"We've been here for hours, though!" another male student complains. He presses his face to a display case, delicious foods being held inside. "I'm starving…" His name was Hibiki Yukata.

**-HIBIKI YUKATA-**

**ULTIMATE HAIRDRESSER**

_Hibiki had a slim, tall build. His hair came down to his ears, and was both each of its many layers were dyed, giving off the illusion of it being a light brown on top, and getting darker underneath. His eyes were a simple hazel color. The hairdresser wore a pair of skinny, light grey jeans, accompanied with a dark blue long sleeved shirt under an oversized purple jacket. Said jacket had white sleeves._

"You really wanna risk that?" Seymour chuckles. "Could be poisonous. Actually—I'm curious, try it for us."

"I'm sure it's perfectly fine. The bear clearly wants us to stay a long time; and I don't think that's going to happen without proper nutrition." a girl murmurs. She stood behind Seymour, watching from his camera as well—her name was Ryoko Tsukatani.

**-RYOKO TSUKATANI-**

**ULTIMATE POETESS**

_A petite figure with a light complexion, with slender limbs. Only one of her eyes are visible—a yellow orb—the other is covered by a white eyepatch. Her black hair is medium length, styled in two twintails resting on her shoulders. Her clothing consists of a red fringed scarf over a white blouse, black jeans, and a pair of boots of the same shade._

The two had been watching videos of the events just moments ago. Seymour had recorded it all, making sure to get good shots of Monokuma. He had expressed interest in documenting his stay in the city, "I'm gonna be a damned millionaire after this story" he had said.

"Too bad we don't have some sort of Ultimate Food Inspector or something," Seymour mutters.

"Well, _*munch*,_ I don't think- _*munch*,_ we'll need one." Hibiki responds, broken up by the sounds of teeth chomping down on something. Looking over, a sandwich missing a bite was in the male's hands.

"How'd you even open it?" the fourth, and final student of the food court group asks, referring to the display case. She was the Ultimate Alpine Skier, Rina Takahashi.

**-RINA TAKAHASHI-**

**ULTIMATE ALPINE SKIER**

_A girl of average height with a skinny figure, though with a bit of muscle. Her dark brown hair is layered, and choppy, coming down just past her shoulders. Bangs rest over her forehead. For clothes, she has black leggings under black half snow pants, and a green jacket over a white undershirt. She wears brown ski boots._

"Uuh… there was a little switch on the side," Hibiki explains, finishing his bite. "Food tastes fine, Mr. Ultimate Paranoia."

"Lemme know in the morning." Seymour replies, switching his full attention toward his camera.

Rina walks over to Seymour and Ryoko, noticing their concentration. "So, wait, what is this again?" she asks, curiously.

"I recorded everything since when that _Monokuma_ showed up. To prove it all really happened, the day we escape, and for one hell of a story." Seymour says.

"One hell of a story?" Rina then asks. Hibiki joins the group at this point.

"I'm a journalist."

"Oh! Wait, what's your name?"

"Seymour."

"What do you write about?"

"Things."

"Like what?"

"You ask a lotta questions, don't you?" Seymour raises a brow, turning to Rina. "I don't know jack about you, what's _your_ name?"

"U-uh… sorry, it's Rina." the skier introduces herself, sheepishly. "I'm the Ultimate Alpine Skier."

"Sorry." It's then Seymour's turn to apologize. "Nice to meet you." Rina agrees.

"Aww." Hibiki snickers, teasingly.

"Oh dear god." Seymour sighs, heavily.

"What are you trying to imply, Hibiki? Do you think love could bloom out of just a few sentences?" Ryoko asks, confused.

"What? That's how it starts!" Hibiki defends, half-jokingly.

"Guys!" Rina exclaims, blood rushing to her face. Finding the others to be of no help to his personal investigation, Seymour promptly walks out, putting the camera in his satchel he carried.

* * *

While one could argue Rina and Seymour weren't having quite a fun time, Nicholas was suffering a worse fate. He made his way to his room, staring himself in the bathroom mirror, watching the sweat roll down his face, bottle of painkillers from the cabinet in hand. His headache from earlier had only intensified further, feeling as if it were to rip his brain apart. And the only thing he could think of during the whole headache was a single name.

Monokuma.

It's almost fact, now. Nicholas is convinced. Monokuma is a known name, a criminal. He remembers a case, an extremely important case—about what, he doesn't know. But he gets the same heartache thinking about it as he does Monokuma. _How could I forget a case? I remember each one._ he thinks, trying so hard to force himself to remember. And nothing comes to him. This absolute feeling of emptiness, unsure of his own memories, the pain he feels whenever he thinks of Monokuma, there was a name for it all, and the word struck deeply in Nicholas' mind.

Despair. He was feeling despair.

Elsewhere, sleep wouldn't come easy. It wasn't likely there would be any sleep that night at all. In the middle of seemingly nowhere, a military camp stands in a blanket of snow. Futuristic technology could be seen from miles, or perhaps from the forest of pine trees nearby. The front gates had two words on them:

**CAMP HOPE**

One of the buildings inside Camp Hope was dedicated to communications. Dozens of computer experts sat behind monitors, leaning in and typing at rapid speeds. With members running to and fro, and the loud shouts of codes and important information being sent to one another, clearly there was a situation.

The communications rooms were formatted just as you'd expect. A dimly lit room with a large screen up front, and rows of computers, each one occupied. An older gentleman with greying hair and at least a dozen medals plus an American flag attached to his olive green peacoat stood before the members of the room. One of said members was locked into a conversation with him.

"General, it's going to take us some time," the young man said, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. "Please, I'm sorry—"

"She's a _menace,_ Grant!" the General shouts. "We don't _have_ time. Keep searching, you know what she's capable of. It's been long enough without her being in our custody."

"I know, sir, just, after everything that's happened, our tech isn't really up to date…" Grant trails off, loosening his already hanging tie.

"Just do what you can. We exist for one reason, and one reason only, Grant." the General mutters.

"To do what the Future Foundation can't…" Grant nods.

"Exactly. We must prevent as many mutual killing games as we can. Keep. Searching."

* * *

[A/N: I told you guys it'd take 10 years don't kill me. This probably didn't need to be so long lol. I'm just gonna go reply to reviews now.

Yellow Rose: lazy (thank you tho)

ApexUtopia: Ryoko got like two more lines hahahaha ty

ProfessionalCatFan: Thanks for the criticism, fixed all that.

CaptainQuackin: Hikaru is fun thankss

BillyBioBob: the decade is finally over sry about that

IfTimeWasStill: Thanks. Hopefully I'm doing character introductions like realistically, that's what I'm going for

PSISomething: HAH it is realistic thank you again sir future installments won't be for a while tho whoops

Forsaken Namesake: YOU GOTTA BERT-LIEVE

ok that's enough now bye seeya in 50 years or so]


	4. Chapter 3: Cornered

**[Warning: blood]**

* * *

**Ding, dong, ding, dong.**

"Rise and shine, everybody! It is now eight o'clock a.m. Breakfast will be served in the hotel's food court on the first floor. Let's make today the best it can be!"

Morning came before Nicholas knew it, having been awoken by an announcement from Monokuma himself. It was both a disappointment, and though he should've expected it, a surprise to wake up in the hotel. He was hoping it'd all be a dream, and he could wake back up home, and none of this would ever have happened. He never would have joined Hope's Peak Academy, he never would have been kidnapped. But the more he mulled on it, the worse he felt. It really wasn't the biggest problem right now. The Ultimate Commander felt as if he was forced into a position of authority, and that badge of his proved it. It was time to use it.

Time passes. Nicholas had freshened up, taking a _long_ shower. He'd realized there was a small TV on the wall opposite of his bed, near the desk. A remote was on said desk. Nicholas tries turning it on, and to his surprise, the first thing he sees is- a weather channel? Indeed, the week's forecast was shown on screen, with the temperature in Celsius. _We must still be in Japan,_ Nicholas thought. Monokuma was there as well, dressed in a blue suit.

"Looks like today we'll be having cloudy skies with some showers later, a chilly day today, nya! I hope those showers will be of blood—it _is_ a perfect day for murder! Nyahahaha!" he laughs, sadistically.

"That doesn't even make any sense," Nicholas murmurs to himself. "If it's going to be chilly…"

Sighing, he begins dressing for the occasion. Looking into his closet, Nicholas takes out a charcoal grey suit, white shirt, and maroon red tie. He'd kept the map from the hotel, and he puts it in inside jacket pocket.

Breakfast passes.

Lunch.

It's midday before he knows it.

The day has been quiet, so far. Socializing with the others a bit. Exploring town. At the very least, what the group has been given. Right now, Nicholas and a few others were on the main street, looking around. So far they've seen a classy fashion store for both men and women, a more casual one, an electronics store, and they were about to enter a sports bar.

"Hey, I used to go to these all the time. My brother Logan and I'd go for a cheeseburger." Nicholas says. _I'm talking about it like it was so long ago already._

"Ha, same," Hibiki agrees, grinning. "But I love the spicy wings."

Durion Pazuru nods in agreement. He wasn't the most social person.

**-DURION PAZURU-**

**ULTIMATE ?**

_A well-dressed male with an average body. Durion wears a grey suit and blue tie, over a white shirt. Thick black hair goes to around halfway down his neck, most of it residing on the top of his head—or in his sideburns. Durion has a pair of brown eyes. Oddly enough, there's a scar on his cheek._

"Why not pizza?" the final member of the quartet, William Tricher, says.

**-WILLIAM TRICHER-**

**ULTIMATE CHEATER**

_An older male with some decent muscle definition. He wears a pair of blue jeans with a black t-shirt and open white hoodie, accompanied by white sneakers and black fingerless gloves. Headphones are in his ears. An antique pen is on a necklace around his, well, neck. William's curly hair a vibrant red. A contrast from his hair, his eyes are blue._

"All of the above are good," Nicholas chuckles. The four enter the sports bar.

And are immediately greeted by Monokuma.

"Why hello!" the bear exclaims, standing on top of boxes behind a podium at the front of the entrance, for waiters/waitresses to seat people. "Table for four?"

"_Whaaa?_ Hey, you're that bear, you can't serve us!" Hibiki blurts out, pointing at the bear.

"What do you want?" William asks, arms crossed.

"I'm bored." Monokuma replies bluntly. "How you boys doin'? Stoppin' by the bar to get a drink? Eh? What can I get you? C'mon Nicky boy, you look like a beer person."

"Actually just stopping by to get a look at the place." Nicholas blinks.

Nonetheless, Monokuma dashes off into the kitchen at fast speeds. Each of the young men look at each other, puzzled. Next thing they know, he's back, and a bottle of beer is in each of their hands.

"C'mon! Let's go sit down!" Monokuma says, going over to the actual bar part of the restaurant, off to the left side. The rest were booths and tables, and taking up the entire right wall was a giant screen for watching sports events.

Durion sighs. "Should we just leave?"

"Doesn't sound like too bad of an idea…" William agrees.

"Oh c'mon guys! He doesn't wanna kill us or anything! At least I don't think so." Hibiki says, waving it off. "I mean, if it gets bad, we can just whack him over the head with these bottles."

"Hold on. This is a chance to talk with the ringleader, you know? Maybe get some information?" Nicholas says. He wasn't all excited about hanging out with Monokuma, but hey, it was a good opportunity in his eyes.

"Well, guess you guys have a point. Let's just be careful." William scratches his neck.

"You people…" Durion facepalms. Then he realizes he doesn't have much else to do. "Fine."

_Nice. Having a drink with the guys. And, well, Monokuma. No biggie._ Nicholas quietly laughs at the absurdity.

_Wait, aren't we all underage?_

* * *

Of course, they aren't the only ones out right now. Three girls were in an entertainment store of sorts. From video games to comic books, pool tables to foosball tables, the students were sure to at least never be bored. There were tables and chairs set up around for people to hang out, and that's precisely where the trio were. Four leather chairs circled a coffee table, in which a deck of cards lay.

"This is a deck of tarot cards. I'm sure you've all seen one before, yes?" Zéphyrine Giroux says, referring to the cards on the table.

**-ZÉPHYRINE GIROUX-**

**ULTIMATE CARD GAMER**

_A foreigner who is fairly tall, but otherwise has a rather unspectacular build. Zéphyrine wears dark blue skinny jeans with a brown leather belt, a white blouse, and a baggy grey jacket. It seemed too big for her. The jacket had numerous pockets. Over her green eyes is a pair of rectangular glasses, with a thin brown frame. Her hair is light brown, and tied into a ponytail. _

Kinzoku Mitsuko was silent, waiting for her to continue.

**-KINZOKU MITSUKO-**

**ULTIMATE ROBOTICIST**

_Kinzoku was a unique case. She sat in a wheelchair, seemingly there permanently. Kinzoku had a tall and thin build, as well as rather wiry. She wore a plaid button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and messy, wrinkled jeans. On her feet is a pair of sandals. Her eyes were a soft grey. Black hair on her head was tied into a messy bun._

"Yes, of course!" Rina says, eyes lighting up. "The tarot card deck was first seen in Northern Italy in the fifteenth century. But, it wasn't until 1780 when they began to be used for fortune telling, mostly by the Roma." She raised a finger in the air as she spoke, seemingly knowing her history.

"And, that is what I am going to do right now." Zéphyrine turns to Rina, smiling—seemingly, she was pleased with the girl's knowledge.

"What?" Rina asks, confused, finger still up.

"Take the deck." Zéphyrine requests.

"Uh, okay." Rina agrees. She leans over to the table, taking the large deck of tarot cards in her hands. "Heavy."

"Well, there are seventy-eight cards. Shuffle the deck, and cut it." Zéphyrine continues.

By this point, Kinzoku had already lost interest. She leaned back in the wheelchair she resided in, studying her fingernails. Rina follows the Ultimate Card Gamer's instruction, shuffling the deck, cutting it right after. The tarot cards became two halves. Rina's next instruction was to take three cards and place three of them next to each other. A 'past, present, and future' spread, Zéphyrine explained. One for each.

First was a card of a man in green, standing at the edge of a cliff looking up to the skies, bright sunlight behind him. A number 0 was atop the drawing, and below read the words 'THE FOOL'.

Next represented a soldier wearing a tunic, sitting in a chariot. A canopy adorned with six-pointed stars lay above him. This time the number was VII, and the words were 'THE CHARIOT'.

Finally, riding a white horse was a skeleton, clad in armor. He held a black flag in his hand. In front of him is a man, woman, and child. XIII was this card's number, and the title was "DEATH".

"Three Major Arcana cards in a row," Zéphyrine comments. "Interesting."

"Soooo…" Rina blinks, looking at the cards. "What do they mean? Tell me 'death' isn't what I think it is."

"The Fool represents your past. How you got into your current situation." Zéphyrine explains, staring into Rina's eyes. "The card means new beginnings. You're about to enter a new stage in your life. Every day from here on will be an adventure."

"Wow. Doesn't feel like it." Rina winces.

"Perhaps it is talking about our current situation. Each day will be an opportunity—and you need to take advantage of these opportunities." Zéphyrine replies.

"…right."

"The Chariot is your present. Where you are right now. In order to come out of your current predicament, you're going to need strength. Willpower. To overcome your obstacles, you will need to be determined, disciplined, and hard-working." Zéphyrine continues.

"Huh…" Rina goes quiet for a moment, mulling her words over. "That makes more sense. I think I can do that."

"Very good." Zéphyrine smiles.

Meanwhile, Kinzoku had been watching in full. She rolls her eyes, scoffing. Obviously, she wasn't a faithful believer of fortune telling. Zéphyrine noticed this, but did not make any comments, instead going to finish her reading.

"Death is not a bad thing. Death is the end of a major chapter in your life, and the beginning of another. This next chapter may be even more important and valuable than the one you're leaving. But, it may be difficult to simply move on. You must embrace the past. You have to put it behind you, and continue with your life. Otherwise, you will experience emotional and possibly physical pain." Zéphyrine says. She goes silent, waiting for Rina's thoughts.

"Weeelll then." Rina says, laughing. "So, death doesn't mean I'm gonna die?"

"No."

"Someone else is gonna die?"

"Maybe."

"Oh."

"Indeed."

"Was any of that even real?"

"Indeed."

"Oh."

"I'm with her on this," Kinzoku finally speaks up, having been silent for the entirety of the reading. She leans forward in her wheelchair, looking up to the fortune teller in her taller leather chair. "Was that real?"

"Of course," Zéphyrine says sharply. "Do you doubt destiny?"

"I doubt you just told hers." Kinzoku deadpans.

"I don't think you understand." she shakes her head. "Destiny is on my side. My readings are guaranteed true."

"Really?" Kinzoku sighs. "Sounds like bullcrap to me."

"Tch. How dare you doubt my readings?" Zéphyrine asks, voice slightly raising in volume. "This will all come true. Watch."

"Um, guys…" Rina says.

"You sound crazy." Kinzoku facepalms.

"And on what basis do you make this claim?" Zéphyrine's calm eyes turned into a glare in Kinzoku's direction.

"You just 'told her fortune'," Kinzoku replies, making air quotes with her fingers on the last few words. She then shrugs. "Meh." The handicapped girl goes back to looking at her fingernails. She was disinterested once again.

"Hmph." Zéphyrine took her cards back, putting them all back into one pile and putting them into the box they came in.

Rina was quiet, now feeling uncomfortable after what was almost an argument. The trio sat in awkward silence, until a certain ringing of a bell broke it.

* * *

"…eventually, they gave me a job at the place."

The four males at the sports bar had been accepting of the bear's company, and the drinks. His morals told Nicholas not to drink, and not to let anyone else have any either, but he gave that up quick. He's still a teenager, after all. Nicholas wasn't the biggest fan of alcohol, yet he found himself working on a second bottle. He certainly wasn't getting any information out of Monokuma any time soon. Hibiki was about halfway through his fourth, according to the empty bottles around him. Durion and William had two bottles each. Probably the most confusing was the fact that Monokuma had six empty bottles in front of him.

"I- I cut the _hell_ out of some hair. Like really good. And then I- _*hic*-_ got an Ultimate for it! But I don't really talk to—" Hibiki was in the middle of a story, but Monokuma cut him off.

"Oh, would you look at the- _*hic*-_ time!" he exclaims, speech slurred. As if the robot were drunk. "Hey, meet me at the square. Kay? Kay."

With that, Monokuma climbed off the bar stool, and waddled off somewhere unknown. After looking at one another in confusion, the group's attention would turn to the television screen in front of them.

**Ding, dong, ding, dong.**

"Hey, you bastards!" Monokuma was on screen. Oddly enough, he wasn't at the sports bar, that's for sure. Rather, he sat leisurely on a bench, with a streetlight next to a fenced-off lake behind him. Clouds began to cover the sun, causing the streetlight to give off light. Wind crashed against the water. "Can y'all do me a favor and meet me at the square? This is extreeeeemely important! Deathly important! I can't even _bear_ how important this is! See what I did there? Haha. Anyway, come to the square, dammit!"

"Huh." William raises a brow. "Think we should go?" The others would notice that William seemed to hold his alcohol pretty well—no signs of intoxication at all.

"I'd rather not." Durion murmurs.

"You _*hic*_ really wanna disobey?" Nicholas says, scratching his neck. "I mean… naw, he won't do anything, but…"

"What if he kills us!?" Hibiki yells, suddenly slamming a fist down on the bar. "And who cares, it'll be _*hic*_ fun!"

"Tch. Quiet down." Durion mutters, shooting a glare in Hibiki's direction.

"Oh, leave him alone. He's just drunk." William shrugs. "We should probably go… but let's be careful."

With that, they finally get up, and are on their way. Nicholas takes the map he grabbed earlier out of his jacket, unfolding it and taking a look at it. He finds a place titled Despair Square, which he assumed rhymed on purpose, with a lake under a bridge nearby. The bridge led to another part of the city, but the contents of it were blacked out. Two roads with a river between them much like the streets of Venice were the only entrances to Despair Square, and past them was the water cutting off that part of the city from whatever was past the bridge. It seemed like it'd be a long walk, but…

Parked in front of the sports bar was a simple grey civilian car. Keys were on the hood. And according to a note, the car was for them. A little doodle of Monokuma's face was on said note, and it was signed 'love, Monokuma'.

It wasn't long before everyone was in the car. William was behind the wheel, Nicholas rode shotgun, while Hibiki and Durion sat in the back. William seemed to know what he was doing, as he began driving to the square.

"I got my license early," William explained. "Just another perk of an Ultimate Cheater. More experience."

"You realize under different circumstances I could probably arrest you for that, right?" Nicholas was in for a long drive.

* * *

Meanwhile, people began piling up at the square. Everyone heard the announcement, it seems. Hoshiko, Ryoko, Shiori, and Gabriel were the only ones currently.

"So, what do you guys think this is about?" Hoshiko asks.

"I'm unsure." Ryoko replies, worried. "I have a bad feeling about it, however."

"Maybe Monokuma will tell us this was all a joke and we can go home?" Shiori suggests.

"D… Do you really think so?" Gabriel asks innocently, looking at Shiori with hopeful eyes.

"I doubt it." Shiori replies.

"Oh…" Gabriel mutters.

"We should be thinking realistically," Ryoko crosses her arms. "We're likely here for good…"

"What? No, don't say that!" Hoshiko says, frowning.

"How do you plan on leaving?" Ryoko asks. "I do hope you aren't planning on falling to Monokuma's game?"

"Of course not!" Hoshiko exclaims, "I mean, I'm sure _someone's_ coming to save us…"

"Mm. Let's hope so…" Ryoko quietly agrees.

"S-s-so w-wait, wh-what are you trying t-to say?" Gabriel meekly asks Ryoko.

"I'm simply looking at this from a realistic standpoint. I question how likely our escape is." Ryoko replies.

"A-a-a-are you saying we w-won't e-escape?"

"No."

"O-Oh…"

Soon enough, everybody showed up. The seventeen students arrived, in wait of Monokuma. Clouds were above, and a light rain began to fall. A slight breeze came as well. Nicholas and his group weren't the only ones with a car, others found vehicles as well. It was noticed along the way that cars appeared on the street, plus public transportation—buses. Surprisingly enough, when everyone's cars were parked, they were seen only with a few scratches. Miraculously, no one crashed.

"Upupu."

There was one large building in the square, across from the bridge. A billboard on it lit up with Monokuma's evil red eye, as his laughter could be heard from all around. Chills ran down many spines.

"Hello everybody! How nice of you to show up!"

Monokuma appeared in front of everyone. Oddly enough, he carried a box in his hands. Nicholas made his way to the front of the group, joined by Seymour. Seymour had a camera in his hand, pointed in Monokuma's direction. Just behind Nicholas was Tennoyama, who tapped Nicholas on the shoulder to give a hello. Behind Seymour was Annie. Her full concentration was directed on Monokuma.

"What do you… _*hic*_ want?" Nicholas asks. He was still a little buzzed from the sports bar.

"Wha- wow! How rude, Nick! Not even a hi, nothing!?" Monokuma frowns, giving a dejected look to the gravel below him. "Puuu… well, I have a present for y'all."

"A present?" Nicholas raised a brow.

"What the hell's in there, huh!?" Tennoyama yells, fists ready to start swinging.

"So loud." Daiki sighs. "Relax, it's probably nothing." Tennoyama shoots a glare that could kill in the aloof teenager's direction.

The box of Monokuma's was wrapped up like a Christmas gift. _Just like before,_ Nicholas thinks. The bear sets it down, and just the last meeting, swings wildly at it. Seymour zooms in, making sure to catch this on his camera. The box is torn apart, and left is a pile of manila folders.

"Did you know that bears are the most intelligent animal in North America?" Monokuma asks. "That applies to me too, y'know! I'm not dumb. I knew y'all wouldn't start killing right off the bat. Thought I'd give you a little push, go check them folders out."

Each folder is marked with a name, written in both Japanese and English characters. Monokuma goes silent, and waits for everyone to take their folders. Uneasy looks are given to one another, before they slowly break off and find their own. The square is dead quiet, aside from the rain hitting the ground. Nicholas takes his folder, examining it for anything suspicious, going as far as even sniffing it.

By the time he makes his decision that it's safe, a scream suddenly rings out from the crowd.

_Oh shit._ Nicholas swiftly looks over, and it's Rina. The folder had dropped to the ground, and in her hands were a few pictures. Everyone rushed to open their folders, including Nicholas.

More screams, and gasps.

Nicholas' folder contained four photos. Each one had a member of his family, except for the fourth, which had all of them together. His brother, mother, and father.

Chained to a wall, bleeding out of every visible orifice.

Unspeakable things had been done to them. Nicholas' brother Logan had blood-soaked bandages wrapped around his right eye, and numerous cuts covered his body. Seemingly done with a blade, a crude drawing of Monokuma's face is on his bare chest. His mother's clothes were ripped, cuts all on her legs. His father sat with his own teeth around him, accompanied by his own _fingers. _If Nicholas hadn't sobered up yet, he was now.

"These pictures were taken about… what, an hour or two ago?" Monokuma says, thoughtfully. He shrugs. "Somewhere around there. Doesn't matter."

"What is this?" Annie asks, a scared tone in her voice. "Our families…?"

"Yeah, good observation, girlie." Monokuma rolls his eyes.

William scoffed. He didn't look too miffed by the pictures, and so he crumped them up and threw them to the ground. But not many others could be as apathetic as he.

Daiki, possibly the most apathetic so far, he was visibly shaken. He grits his teeth. "It's fake," he concludes. "Who are you trying to fool?"

"Well, you're a dumbass." Monokuma says bluntly.

"Tch. Insulting me? At least I showed up. You, on the other hand, are too cowardly to show your damned face." Daiki advances toward Monokuma. "I suppose you're just hiding behind a computer right now, aren't you? Safe? Trying to terrorize minors? Have you nothing better to do with your life?"

"Upupu… you're even more of a dumbass than I thought." Monokuma replies, with an air of confidence.

Daiki scowls.

"Enough. What is the point of showing us this?" Seymour asks, keeping the camera trained on Monokuma.

"Motive number one." Monokuma grins. "Here's the deal. Y'all have twenty-four hours. You remember our game, right? Well, I want it to start already! If no one's dead by twenty-four hours, then y'all families are dead! By the way, they're being tortured right now."

Silence falls on the square like a curtain. In one form or another, everyone expressed their displeasure with the situation. There was no solid proof their families were really in the photos, but none was needed to send a large chunk of the students into hysterics.

"Oh, how did I not see this coming!?" Bert exclaimed. "Is my inspiration _not_ the key to success? No… it just means I'm not Bert-lieving enough. That's it."

Kinzoku had a death glare in her eyes, as she tore her pictures and folder apart.

Tennoyama had already left. The sound of a car engine could be heard driving off into the distance.

As for Nicholas, it appeared to be high time he got used to migraines. Once again, pain shot through his head. _How many times is that now?_ he thought, rubbing his temples in hopes to eradicate the pain.

"You're dismissed, kiddos. Twenty-four hours. Upupu." Monokuma says, before disappearing.

_There it is again,_ Nicholas thought. _That feeling._

_Despair._

* * *

[A/N: Surprise, bet you thought you saw the last of me. Nope. I'm just really fucking lazy. You guys are okay with the two-three month wait for updates right? Right. But uh, sorry for taking so long. I'm a really slow writer. Anyways, reviews:

JokersMaze: Thank you, thank you

PSISomething: Thank you, and uh, yeah, those authors that disappear after a few chapters? I've totally never done that hahahahhah

Integras: Important role? Looks to me like he's just annoying the shit out of everyone. But yes, he is great

ShadedLyht: Nicholas is weak

ApexUtopia: 1. For realism, I strongly doubt irl everybody'd just be like "HEY LET'S BE FRIENDS" right off the bat 2. My only excuse here is lazy/rushed writing, I'm not a big fan of the last chapter either, my apologies. You are right there. 3. AND NOW YOU DO. Thanks for the criticism!

I predict the next chapter will come out around the same time Half Life 3 does.]


	5. Chapter 4: Goodnight

Each student stood in silence. Distrust slowly creeps up in each one of them. Worrisome glances are thrown back and forth, as allies are created. Groups are already made, while some back away from the group entirely. Once a group of young students with hope, smiles on their faces, and lights in their eyes was now something entirely different.

It would seem the train of despair had started moving, and Monokuma was the conductor.

"Everyone, listen up!" Nicholas raises his voice over the rising volume of rain. He looks over everyone in the square—not everyone had looked his direction, but no one aside from Tennoyama left. "We need to band together right now."

"How do you propose we do that?" Seymour asks, raising a brow. He had since put his camera away.

"First off, we should get to know each other better, I'm thinking…" Nicholas says, crossing his arms. "It's a necessity right now."

"Not in the mood for social events." Kinzoku mutters.

"I know, I know. None of us are. And maybe we should've done this sooner." Nicholas sighs. "But we didn't know this was for real. Now we do. The reality is staring us in the face."

"We've only just met," Durion argues. "I'm not going to start working with you like we've known each other forever."

_Goddammit. I need to get through to them. We need to stick together._ Nicholas sighs once again, walking around in a circle.

"Perhaps the officer isn't wrong." Ryoko speaks up. "Perhaps if we are alone for too long, we may be… tempted."

"Tempted to do _what?_" Durion asks.

"Monokuma has given us an offer we can't exactly refuse. Our families' lives are at stake, if we are to listen to him. I'd rather not believe it, but it isn't too hard to think someone may fall to his trickery." Ryoko explains.

"Y-you think s-someone might k-k-kill?" Gabriel asks, eyes widening. The poor boy was practically shaking in fear.

"It's not impossible." Ryoko looks away.

"Let me ask you something then. What are we supposed to do about our families?" Kinzoku asks.

"Assume the obvious." Daiki says. "The pictures are fake. So we do nothing."

"What makes you so sure?" Nicholas asks.

"It's the most obvious answer." Daiki replies, simply.

"We don't know the pictures are fake," Kinzoku says bitterly.

"Fake or not—we have a situation. What's the plan?" Durion asks.

Everyone goes into silence. Nicholas steps away, taking a moment to think logically. _The problem is, our families are in danger and we can't do anything about it unless we kill. And we can't do that. Ugh… my head's killing me…_

"Let's just go back to the hotel for now." Nicholas says. The headache was too much for thinking at the moment. "We should meet for breakfast tomorrow morning, all of us. Right after the announcement."

"We could make it a routine, too…" Annie speaks up. "We should show up every day."

"_Every_ day? Yeah, I dunno about you, but I'd rather not spend more than like, a _day_ here, girlie." Hikaru says, frowning.

"Um…" Annie was nervous. "Well, it seems like we may be here a while."

"It's true." Seymour agrees.

"If we don't plan on killing, yeah, we should probably get comfortable." Nicholas agrees as well, but reluctantly. "Do we have a deal? Every day, meet at the food court for breakfast?"

It's quiet, after. Nobody really responds, aside from a few nods, and verbal responses of nothing more than an 'okay', or a 'fine'. For the most part, it was agreed on. Although Nicholas doubted that everybody would show up, at least over the course of the next few days, he could tell they were finally showing interest in possibly banding together. It doesn't take long for everyone to leave, as a public transport bus had shown up. William, Durion, and Hibiki went on the bus, leaving the car they took for Nicholas to drive on his own.

It was a slow, quiet drive back to the hotel. The only sounds to be heard was the low rumbling of the engine, the everlasting rain, and rolling thunder. Nicholas drove through the abandoned streets, watching as the streetlights went on, lighting up the evening under the cloudy sky. According to the clock on the car's dashboard, the time was about quarter after six. Despite it being close to dinner time, Nicholas found himself without an appetite.

Meanwhile, the bus with the rest of the students wasn't faring much better. A few students whispered to one another, and some had broken down into quiet sobs, but activity was minimal.

Daiki sat in the back corner, alone. In his hands was the _'motive'_ Monokuma just gave out. The images were already burned into his mind, but he couldn't stop staring. His only family. Four siblings. Tortured. _Tortured._ Unfortunately, the word was familiar to Daiki.

It takes him a while to notice the girl who had put herself next to him.

"Hello." Annie greets, a sad, small smile on her face.

"Can I help you with something?" Daiki raises a brow. He quickly puts the pictures back in the envelope, before continuing. "Well, that's what I'd ask if I cared or worked as a psychiatrist. Fortunately for me, neither is applicable."

"I was about to ask _you_ that." Annie replies. "The motive… it really did a number on you, didn't it?"

Daiki doesn't reply. He doesn't need to.

"Don't worry. I'm sure they're okay." Annie says.

"What are you doing? Trying to cheer me up?" Daiki asks.

"Well, yes. I can tell you're going through pain." Annie frowns.

"I don't need you trying to give me words of encouragement." Daiki rolls his eyes. "Besides, aren't _you_ in pain? Why are you helping _me?_"

Annie pauses. "I am. But I am also the Ultimate Pacifist. It's my job to keep peace. And I can sense discord in this very bus…"

"So you're one of those, then." Daiki says.

"Hm?"

"Putting others before yourself, making sure everyone's happy when meanwhile no one's looking out for you."

"I… wouldn't say that."

"It's precisely what you're doing right now, with me." Daiki shrugs. "You came to me with the intent of helping, when you're in need of it too."

"…let's help each other, then."

"Oh boo, starting alliances now?"

"Why not?"

"I don't wish to form such a relationship with you." Daiki says, bluntly. "…but, I suppose I have little choice here."

"I'm sure it would be beneficial." Annie smiles.

"Fine."

"Really?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, just… shut up."

* * *

**Elsewhere**

* * *

"First motive's up."

Two young men stood in front of a large screen. One had a cigarette in his hand. The other male sat at a table nearby.

"What is it?" the latter asks.

"It's our favorite—families are being held hostage." the cigarette wielding one responds. He takes a drag of said cigarette.

"Then that explains Logan not showing up…"

"Shit. Takeo, where was Logan last?"

"At the barracks… Kagome, does this mean…?" Takeo nervously asks.

"Looks like they found us." Kagome mutters, looking out a nearby window, at the rising sun behind the sign reading 'Camp Hope'.

"Do we relocate?" Takeo bites his lip.

"No. Get someone to look into this, will ya?" Kagome requests, shutting off the screen. "And give our weapon a call."

"Weapon?"

"Ryan. If anyone can find Logan, prolly gonna be him."

"But, Kagome, there's nothing to work on." Takeo raises a brow, standing up.

"The man's damn near superhuman. I've faith he can figure it out, don't you?" Kagome smiles a knowing smile, before taking a drag of his cigarette.

Ever since Nicholas disappeared, Kagome Kazuki had his hands full. He began a full-scale investigation, but when that didn't work, he ran off and joined a private military company. It's been busy.

Kagome shrugged on his leather bomber jacket, and left the building. Camp Hope was a district of buildings with all different uses, out in the middle of a snowy tundra. The morning chill bit through Kagome harshly, as he continued smoking his everlasting cigarette. The worn-out watch on his wrist read quarter to seven in the morning, and Kagome's been waiting for the day he can sleep in, but today wasn't that day. A lot was on the agenda.

The Ultimate Private Eye was getting close to finding Nicholas. Computer expert Tarou Nakahara, the once Ultimate Developer, has been pulling miracles. One of such miracles was hacking into cameras wherever he could find one, and finally, one of the camera feeds shown a familiar face: undoubtedly, it was Ultimate Commander Nicholas White. Unfortunately, Camp Hope's technology is not entirely state of the art—and thus, the exact location has not been narrowed down, and communication is not possible. All they know is Nicholas is in Japan.

Camp Hope, however, is not looking for Nicholas. Rather, a more important, _dangerous, _highly talented individual. And there was no way in hell Kagome's investigation would get the support it desperately needs.

Kagome was a private eye for a reason, though. He swore to Logan. He swore to Logan that he would find Nicholas. He will never give up the hunt.

_Time to get to work._ Kagome drops his cigarette to the snow, stamping it out.

* * *

_I can't see._

Absolute darkness. Logan White couldn't tell where he was.

His sense of hearing worked, that's for sure. Oh, how he could hear. Dozens of strained screams entered his ears at once, it's all he could have heard for what must have been, what, hours now? The screams were frighteningly loud, but the pain was louder. He sat no more than a few feet away from one unfortunate soul having to endure whatever pain everyone was going through. It was his mother. A million emotions were going through Logan; he could feel the anger coursing through his veins, the horror in his chest, the shock in his hyperventilating breath, but he couldn't do a single thing about it.

As he struggled through the rope tied around his wrists, one thought stayed in his head.

_I'll come back for you, Nick…_

After an agonizingly long time, the screams came to a pause. Logan's anxiety was spiking however, and was unable to find relief. Footsteps resounded throughout the building. They were familiar to Logan, by now. Suddenly, light entered Logan's eyes. He instinctively went to shield them, but his hands were bound. Somebody took off his blindfold.

He was in a cage. Everywhere he looked there was blood. Logan immediately looked over at his mother, and wished he didn't. She was already in a horrible state, but it was worsening. His father was next to her as well, and Logan could only hope his eyes were closed because he was unconscious. For better or worse, his mind was distracted by a voice.

"So how are we all doing today!?" That familiar, high pitched voice.

Walking through the hallway outside the cage was an assumedly male body, clad in a beige peacoat and pants. Under the coat was a white shirt and black tie, and around his neck was a scarf of a darker beige. Matching the color of his suit however, was a ski mask covering his face. A smiley face was crudely scribbled onto it in black marker.

Nobody answered the mysterious man's question. No one had the _strength._

"Aw, tough crowd. But don't worry ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Y'all have about…" he checked his watch, "Twenty-two hours before you're all put out of your goddamn misery. But I give it twelve before one of your children, siblings, cousins, or whatever, snaps and offs someone! Hooray!"

Logan couldn't deal with this crap. He tuned out the masked man's insane laughter and kept his eyes trained on the TV screen above the cage's bars. On it was a live feed from the game Nicholas and classmates were forced to play. Right now it showed a camera from the outside, showing the desolate streets, and the downpour of rain. Sighing, he looked back on times with his brother. They've been through a lot.

* * *

_March 25__th__ 2015_

_Tokyo, Japan_

"Attention all units, this is _Keibu_ Nicholas White. Your orders are shoot to kill; everybody move in now, over!"

It's go-time. Nicholas White was exercising his commanding abilities at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, leading elite soldiers of many different groups—from Special Unit to the Martial Arts Attack Team, it was a busy day at Haneda Airport. About a hundred men stormed the airport, managed to get past security, and now, the number of hostages they have are uncountable.

"_Asahi no a,_" Nicholas changes the channel to team Asahi no a, or in a term in his own language, Alpha. "This is Keibu Nicholas White. Hit the shopping center in Terminal 1. That is your highest priority."

"Roger, sir_,_" the voice on the other end replies.

Little did he know, a Special Unit operative was in there. It could be said that he was going undercover, but… well, he wasn't there under direct orders.

_March 24__th__ 2015_

"_Of course. You're gonna make it look like you're another hostage. You do what you do, try to send me some sort of signal, and I'll have riot teams knockin' on the front door. Snipers'll be set up on the roofs, you'll be out in no time."_

"_Undercover work, eh… Nothin' new, but, we ain't never hid nothing from us."_

"_You said it yourself, we're just children to them. If this, Ultimate Despair is a real thing, this is our chance to find out. No one's gonna listen. We do this, or it doesn't happen."_

It felt like a trap. It the anonymous tip Nicholas got had one order: come to Haneda Airport, find a man by the name of Hitaka Yuushi, and have a chat with him. It just so happened to be the same day that the entire airport is held hostage. Maybe it was a trap; but if Logan found Hitaka, then they could be onto something big. Unfortunately, the operation was definitely going to take some time. Nicholas may be in for a long wait.

* * *

_Present day_

It's a quiet night at the hotel's food court. Seymour, Bert, Gabriel, and Hibiki sat together at a table, talking. A few others were there as well, but they were far from the four.

"Hell of a motive." Seymour muttered. In front of the reporter was his video camera, playing the video of the events only hours prior, and the pictures of his family in chains.

Oddly enough, the overactive child named Bert was not as talkative as he usually was. He took a blow. Even the Ultimate Motivational Speaker had his troubles. "This can't happen," he said, "I've done nothing wrong. Why are they doing this!?" he suddenly raises his voice.

Gabriel flinched at the outburst—but was silent. Utterly, deathly silent.

"Cool it." Seymour replies, not taking his eyes off his camera. "We'll get out of this."

"The pictures are fake, right?" Hibiki says. "I mean, they must be. This'll be over with in no time."

"Th-th-that was… a-a good qu-ques-question, though…" Gabriel speaks up.

"What was?" Seymour asks.

"W-wh-why a-are they _doing_ this?" Gabriel looks at Seymour, desperate for an answer.

"Despair." But it comes from somewhere else.

Nicholas passed by the table, overhearing the conversation. He decided to put himself in it.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bert asks.

"Don't know yet." Nicholas sighs. "But whoever's behind this, they want to see us in despair. Break us down, see us at our most vulnerable state."

"Seems like you know what you're talking about." Seymour grabbed his camera, putting it away. Just before he dropped it in his satchel, he hit the record button.

"I don't. This is probably gonna sound weird, but… I think I've been getting flashbacks, or something… and the word _'despair' _keeps coming up." Nicholas replies.

"Yeah, that does sound weird. I think you're crazy." Hibiki says, completely seriously.

"Thanks." Nicholas rolls his eyes, not quite as seriously.

"So what are you saying, you know something about all of this?" Seymour asks.

"I don't know… feels like I'm forgetting something. Before I ended up here, I know I was working on a very important case—but I can't remember anything about it to save my life."

"What _do_ you know?"

"Despair. I know that pretty well."

Seymour is quiet. He quickly reaches into his satchel and turns off the camera, eliciting a few chuckles from Nicholas. "I know you were recording." he says.

"I've been doing a lot of that." Seymour shrugs.

With that, Nicholas walked away, leaving the group back to their silence.

"Hey, your name's Gabriel, right?" Hibiki says, changing the dark course their conversation was at.

"Wh-who, m-m-me?" Gabriel sputters, eyes widening. "Um, y-yes. I m-mean, um, no, wait, y-yes, that's me."

"Your hair's pretty messy. What do you say I clean it up sometime?" Hibiki offers. "I'm probably the best hairdresser you're gonna see in a while—not to be cocky."

"W-well, I-I, I don't know, I-I-I, I sh-shouldn't make you d-do that—"

"C'mon, it's not like we have much to do, right?"

"A-are you sure…?"

"Yeah. Tomorrow." Hibiki smiles.

"…o-okay." Gabriel returns the smile.

**Ding, dong, ding, dong.**

Monokuma's ringing bell echoed through the hotel. Just like the earlier announcement, he was sitting on a bench in front of the lake. Sheltering him from the rain was an umbrella in his claw, with the same color scheme as himself.

"Time for bed, children!" he says, ever so cheery. "Or not. Depends on what you plan on doing tonight. Reminder: you have nineteen hours to save your family! And it's really simple, y'know? How hard can it be? Get a knife from one the restaurants, jam it in some poor guy's throat, flush the blade down the toilet... take a shower... Sounds pretty easy to me! Anyways. Night Time begins now. Nighty night."

"Here we go." Seymour sighs.

"Wh-wh-what do y-you mean, 'here we go'?" Gabriel asks.

"What I mean is, someone's out to kill, starting now." Seymour says bluntly. "I'm leaving. We're back here tomorrow morning for breakfast."

With that, Seymour gets up to leave, but Hibiki stops him. "Hey, wait, don't- don't say that." Hibiki gets up as well.

"Why not?" Seymour raises a brow, looking Hibiki in the eye. "As much as I'd like to believe we'll all make it through the night, I know that's not true. Look around you, Hibiki. Ain't a single soul around who's got their head on straight."

"So? Can't you just put a bit of faith in the group?" Hibiki asks, walking around the table and closer to Seymour.

"There's seventeen of us. Not everyone has been especially talkative, or ready to prove that they won't snap. I even got the evidence for that." Seymour retorts, holding up his camera to back it up.

"Oh, come _on!_" Hibiki raises his voice. Gabriel flinches, Bert looks at the two worriedly. "Don't you think _murder_ is a bit much!? We're all teenagers, for god's sake! Maybe no one has their head on straight, but is anyone a damn _criminal mastermind?_"

"The girl with the eyepatch said it better than I could earlier. Monokuma has given us an offer we may not be able to refuse. In my eyes, it's enough to send one of the possibly weaker members of us to do something unspeakable."

"Who are you to-"

"Break it up."

An intruding voice suddenly cuts into the argument. Annie walks up to the table, a completely neutral-yet delicate-expression on her face.

"...please don't fight." she says, hardened face falling to a soft, dejected one. "It makes me terribly sad to see you shout like this."

Seymour is silent, looking Hibiki in the eye, perhaps silently telling him to listen to the girl.

"I... guess that wasn't such a good idea..." Hibiki realizes what he was doing, and quickly calms down. "I just don't want to see anyone die... I'm sorry Seymour."

Hibiki extends his hand out toward Seymour. After a moment, Seymour nods, taking Hibiki's hand in his and shaking it firmly.

"All of you. Go to your rooms." Seymour then says. "Don't come out for nobody. Maybe we can prevent a death. Maybe we will all make it to tomorrow."

"Oh dear..." Bert bites his lip. "Well, don't worry... We'll be okay! I know it!" he suddenly exclaims. "I'll be on my way now!" Bert stands up, and with a sudden burst of confidence, makes his way to the elevators to head to his room.

"U-um, good... g-good... n-ni- nigh- good- good night." Gabriel somehow manages. Nervously, he follows Bert.

Hibiki nods to Seymour and Annie, before catching up with Gabriel. "So, uh, hey. Would you like a short cut? Maybe just a trim?"

Seymour starts packing his things. "Hey. Annie, right?"

Annie nods in reply.

"Thanks for that." Seymour says. Putting the motive in his satchel, he puts the strap of said satchel over his shoulder. "Before you came, I said nobody's got their head on straight-well, other than you, and maybe a few others-and that was a perfect example of what I'm talking about."

"What was that about, may I ask?" Annie inquires, tilting her head.

"I say someone's not going to make it tonight. He says otherwise." Seymour explains.

"Oh... what makes you say that?"

"Somebody's going to snap. Someone's going to want to save their family. I don't even doubt it in the slightest. You don't think I've done stories about things like this?"

"About sadistic killing games?"

"No, Annie, I- no, about threatened families." Seymour facepalms.

"Oh."

"That's a chord certain people like to strike. Such as Monokuma, clearly." Seymour frowns.

Annie is quiet. She eventually nods, before turning to leave. "I'll be going, now. Good night."

"Night."

* * *

"Sir, there's been activity at Camp Hope."

"Anything on Hitaka?"

"No. He's still dark. But it wasn't usual activity."

"Ah... what happened?"

"Drones reported two suspicious individuals sneaking in at about 0400 hours last night, went right past the guards. There was a snowstorm at the time, so... couldn't quite tell what they were doing inside, but the same two people came back out with a body bag over their shoulder."

"Could you tell who they were?"

"Kumas, for sure."

"Thank you, keep me updated."

"Of course, Commander Naegi."

* * *

Kagome sits leisurely on a bench in Camp Hope's mess hall, resting his legs on the table in front of him. "So. Anything with Nick?"

"Nada." Hitaka Yuushi replies. The slightly older male frowns. "It's been the same as before. He's somewhere in Japan."

"How about the other guy?"

"Who?"

"Mask."

"Oh. Nothing. Nakahara tried hacking into Future Foundation drones, but their tech is way beyond us." Hitaka sighs. "Almost had a lead but... again, the damn drones. He's still trying though, we're still fighting."

"Well, you were the Ultimate Fighter, weren't you Hitaka?" Kagome chuckles lightly.

"Still can't believe it took me so long to remember." Hitaka rolls his eyes. "Guess I did though... Suzuki needed to step up her game."

"Naw, you wouldn't forget something like that for good. It was instinct. Just like how you saw through her tricks, and had a 1911 in her face."

"Fun times."

* * *

"So just how are my lovelies doing?"

The masked man from the cells sits leisurely in his office-if it could be called one. The room was so disgusting in both waste and smell, the woman in the room was almost too repulsed to even stand there.

"They are alive. But they're on their way out." she replies.

"Any murders yet?"

"No. The night is still young though, Mr. Storyteller."

"Indeed... would you like to come watch with me?" The Storyteller offers. A tiny box television was on his desk, displaying the mutual killing game with Nicholas White. He gestures to his lap.

"...of course, Mr. Storyteller." the woman reluctantly replies. She slowly walks over to The Storyteller, and realizes what he meant by the lap gesture. Swallowing, she climbs into his lap, sitting and training her eyes on the television.

The slightest chuckle could be heard from The Storyteller, as the two watched the streets in complete silence.

* * *

[A/N: Guess who's back? Back again? Hint, it's not Slim Shady. It's me. I'm back. I finished this in less than a month, which is surprising. Anyway, I have a lot to get through.

First off: I'm going to do a little self plug, here. I used to make sprite edits a lot, and I just remembered that I actually have one of Nicholas. It's drspriteedits on tumblr. If anyone would like me to do a sprite of their character, let me know. I may do a bunch of sprites for everybody in this fic, that'd be cool.

Second: If you could do me a favor, I have some questions for the reviews. What do you think of the characters so far? Who should get more attention? And in general, what do you think of how I'm handling the story? If you only decide to answer like one of these please answer the last one.

And now, reviews.

Integras: "he's going to inspire everyone and prevent every murder." Don't hold your breath.

PSISomething: Ugh, I know. 17 characters is an awful lot, so not everyone will get equal screen time, probably. AND YEAH, SORRY ABOUT THE WARNING, I knew that was going to spoil it. But this isn't the first syoc I've done, and I may or may not have basically used this motive before, and I didn't put a warning then. It ruffled some feathers, so I figured I should try to at least let people know like, "hey, shit's about to get fucked up, watch out". I may up the rating to M sometime soon.

ApexUtopia: Nah, you weren't rude. And that's true, these people just can't be friends, can they? Interesting bunch. Considering how this is posted today, I suppose Half Life 3 is also out. You're welcome.

Aaaaand... okay, we're done, alright then. Not a lot of reviews this time around. Y'all better not be getting bored. Anyway, seeya later. Later as in like, a couple centuries or so. Not that big a wait.]


	6. Chapter 5: Bloodshed

[A/N: This is it; be warned for blood.]

* * *

**Rules:**

**1: All violence against Mayor Monokuma is strictly forbidden, as well as destruction of security cameras.**

**2: Night Time is between 11:00PM and 8:00AM. During this period, you may only sleep in your room. Being caught sleeping anywhere else will result in punishment.**

**3: Breaking into locked bedrooms is allowed-encouraged. There will be no attempts on breaking into any other room.**

**4\. A culprit who kills another student, or students, will be granted freedom, but only if they make it through the Class Trial. In order to do so, a culprit must prove beyond a shadow of a doubt they are not the guilty party. If they are proven innocent, they will escape, although each other student will perish. If found guilty, only that culprit will be killed.**

**5\. A riddle system is in place. At any time, you may attempt to answer the three riddles using the "ESCAPE" feature on your ElectroID. One student getting the correct answer will move on to the next riddle for everybody. You have ****five**** attempts. If you cannot get it right in five attempts, you will be the next victim. A Class Trial will ensue. After each murder, a hint will be given. If the three riddles are solved correctly, one final riddle awaits.**

**6\. There can only be two victims in a murder at a time.**

**7\. A Body Discovery Announcement will be made after three students find a corpse. Monokuma Files, containing autopsy reports with varying degrees of detail, will be given.**

**8\. Rules can be added at any time.**

* * *

**Ding, dong, ding, dong.**

"Rise and shine, everybody! It is now eight o'clock a.m. Breakfast will be served in the hotel's food court on the first floor. Let's make today the best it can be!"

Time for the second full day of this place. Groaning, Nicholas rubs the sleep out of his eyes, and gets on with it. It's a rushed morning routine today. With Monokuma's motive last night, Nicholas felt the need to get going immediately. A bad feeling rushes through him as he dresses in dark blue jeans and a short sleeve grey button-up (the forecast had called for warmer temperatures), and so Nicholas quickly grabs his keycard and ElectroID-leaving right after.

Immediately, the sunlight from the giant windows in front of him blinds Nicholas temporarily. There were unfortunately no curtains to block the light illuminating the opposite side of the hallway, where each of the students' bedrooms were. Nicholas puts up a hand to shield his eyes from the rays, before another distraction appears.

"Okay, one, two, three!"

The counting was followed by a sudden loud _bang._ Raising a brow, Nicholas looks around for the commotion, finding it on his right. A group of about five people were huddled around another student, and a bedroom door. The student appeared to be Daiki, recovering from an attempt on kicking the door in. As Nicholas is about to rush to the scene, he realizes something on the ground.

Dried up, neon pink puddles. Inhaling deeply through his nose, Nicholas smelled the unmistakable scent of blood.

_Oh shit._

"Hey, what's going on!?" Nicholas exclaims, dashing to the group. His mind was suddenly going at a million thoughts per minute, and begins jumping to conclusions. _The motive. Is it the motive!? Did somebody actually…?_

"Blood," Hikaru quickly replies, "Look, there's blood! I-It leads to this room!"

"Go again!" Seymour shouts. "One, two, three!"

"Argh!" Daiki grunts, sending a massive side kick into the door, below the handle. It shook, but no dice.

Nicholas looks back to the ground. Sure enough, the tiny blood splatters led to this room. He looks up to the sign to determine whose room it is. _No…_

"Oh, get out!" Tennoyama says, frustrated. "I'll do it!"

Seconds later, Tennoyama is in position. She executes the same kick Daiki was attempting, but with even more force, and next thing they knew the door was wide open.

"Oh, no…" Tennoyama's eyes widen. She steps into the room.

The others follow. Nicholas notices the blood from the hallway trailed into the bedroom. There's suddenly a gasp—then a scream. Then a yell. A shout.

"…Nick?" Hoshiko appears, behind the officer. "What's going on?"

But Nicholas doesn't respond. Fearing the worst, he enters the room with a nervous swallow.

And now he sees it. Now he sees what all the hubbub was about. The sight enters his eyes, and immediately it's imprinted in his brain with no hopes of being unseen anytime soon.

The absolute worst case scenario was true.

* * *

It looked as if he were sleeping. The look on his face, ever so peaceful.

But if he were sleeping, it was clear he wouldn't be waking up.

The male lay on his bed, with his own blood splattered all over the mattress, blanket, nightstand, and floor next to him. Tiny splotches of blood lead away from the bed. Jabbing through his throat was the handle to a knife on one side, and the tip of a blood-soaked blade exiting on the other. A bit of blood ran down the side of the handle, before dropping to the ground, still wet.

**Hibiki Yukata, the Ultimate Hairdresser, is dead.**

* * *

**Ding, dong, ding, dong.**

"Attention all students! A body has been discovered! Class Trial will begin in a few hours, so please use this time wisely. Upupupu… good luuuck~!" Monokuma's announcement rang out through both the hallway, and the room.

Nicholas stared in both shock, and absolute silence. Hibiki Yukata. He wasn't quite sure if he could call many people here his friend yet, but he knew he could call Hibiki one. It wasn't even twenty-four hours ago Nicholas was having drinks with him, and now, here he is.

Dead with a knife through his neck.

"Wh—i-isn't that…?" Hoshiko steps in, before trailing off her sentence. Her eyes dart around to everybody in the room.

"Oh no." Ryoko says sadly as she enters the room. "…This is… most unfortunate..."

It doesn't take long for nearly each student to pour into the room. Everybody reacts in their own different ways, with some screaming in horror, some held back vomit, while others simply stared in silence. Nicholas was one of the latter. There were no words to be said.

_Beep beep._

Several beeps were suddenly heard, coming from a few students' pockets. Nicholas felt a vibration in his pocket, and reaches inside to check. In his hand was now his ElectroID, and the light was lit with a notification.

_"A new Monokuma File has been added. [Read]"_

Monokuma Files... that's right. Nicholas took a moment the night before to look through his ElectroID. He vaguely remembered one of the options reading 'Monokuma Files', although upon pressing it then he was given nothing more than a blank page.

"What the hell is this?" Tennoyama asked, though her voice lacked the usual boisterous tone.

"Why, it's the very first Monokuma File!"

Somehow, Monokuma was able to sneak into the room, right past everybody. With his paws on his hips, he stood on top of the bed, next to the late Hibiki. "Yeesh. Somebody went to work on poor Hibiki, eh? It was probably someone in this room, y'know? Good job to you!"

"What are these, Monokuma Files?" Nicholas asks.

"Read it and maybe you'll find out, dumbass." Monokuma deadpans.

Nicholas raised his eyebrows at Monokuma, but knew better than to talk back. _If Logan were here, he wouldn't be taking this crap..._

Alas, he obeys anyway. Tapping the '[Read]' button, the ElectroID opened a new page with the words 'Monokuma Files' as the header. Unlike when Nicholas looked before, there was an option to be chosen, reading 'Monokuma File #1: Hibiki Yukata'. Everyone with their devices out opened it up. The rest simply watched out the scene in silence.

* * *

_"Monokuma File #1: Hibiki Yukata, the Ultimate Hairdresser_

_Cause of Death: Blood Loss_

_Time of Death: 4:55AM_

_Notes: Hibiki Yukata had a knife plunged through his throat. Death was instantaneous."_

* * *

"An autopsy report?" Durion inquires, scratching the scalp hidden under his layered black hair. "Are they usually this... short?"

"This one is," Monokuma shrugs.

"You won't tell us any more?" Zéphyrine asks.

"Nope. That's up to you."

"I see." Zéphyrine replies, ever so calmly. She crosses her arms over her baggy grey jacket.

"How are you so calm right now...?" Hikaru asks. It couldn't be seen under her sunglasses, but her eye was twitching.

"I may need to do a reading today, but... I have faith we will overcome this." Zéphyrine says. Despite her cool and perhaps even uncaring stature, a saddened undertone could be heard in her voice.

Rina looks at Zéphyrine, catching the tone. She remembers the reading she herself was given. "We will... but we can't let this get to us..." The same tone Zéphyrine had was present here as well, but amplified. "In order to come out of this, we will need to be strong... we need to be determined."

Zéphyrine gives an impressed look to Rina, nodding in agreement.

"Agreed. If we work together, we try our asses off, we'll make it through this." Nicholas comments, looking back to Hibiki's corpse. The fact that he was _dead_ hasn't even set in yet, but there's no time to waste. Nicholas figured it was time to get this show on the road.

"Oh my god. Why does this happen every single time?" Monokuma sighs. "Same old game, over and over again... 'come on guys! We need to keep hoping!' So pathetic."

"Wait, over and over again?" Nicholas questions.

"Nevermind."

"Well, what's our next move, Monokuma?" Seymour asks. Of course, his camera had been recording everything.

"Y'all read the rules, didn't you?" Monokuma replies. "Shouldn't be so hard to figure it out."

"Can't just give us a hint, or something?" William frowns. Raising a fingerless gloved hand, he takes his headphones out of his ears.

"It's investigation time, idiots!" Monokuma raises his voice. "If you'd have read the rules, you'd realize it says a culprit can only escape _if they survive Class Trial._"

"And how does one go about doing that?" William asks.

"Y'see, Class Trial is what it all comes down to. My favorite parts of these damned things. After a murder, there's a period for a few hours in which you all investigate the death. After adding your evidence to your ElectroID, you're taken to a room where you all debate it out-whodunnit? Who is the culprit?" Monokuma begins explaining. "The culprit's gonna want to make sure they're not caught, y'know? Cuz then they die. Culprit gets executed, everyone else lives on."

"So to win Class Trial you have to get away with it..." William says, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

"Eeeexactly! If they're found innocent, then they walk free. Everyone else dies though." Monokuma says cheerfully.

"You sadistic son of a bitch..." Nicholas spits, bitterly.

"Ooh, look at this guy. So edgy." Monokuma replies with seeping sarcasm.

Nicholas promptly responds with a blunt middle finger.

"Should we start investigating now...?" Rina asks.

"You should've been investigating hours ago, but..." Monokuma trails off. "Yes you should! Now, let's see, it's 8:30 now? I'll give y'all till 11:00. This way if it's a quick trial, you can come out for lunch! Yay! I'll leave you to do your thing, now."

With that, Monokuma jumps off the bed and walks on out. By now, all seventeen-no, scratch that-_sixteen_ students had gathered. Everyone was circled around Hibiki's body, and it's in the quietness filling the room that brought out a few emotions. Rina couldn't hold back her soft sobs, while some had a stone hard, angry expression on their faces such as Daiki or Nicholas. Annie however, didn't look sad, and she didn't look angry. Instead, the Pacifist appeared to be somewhere in the middle-expressionless. Was she hurt? Presumably. But her reaction, or lackthereof, to seeing the corpse was not what Nicholas expected.

Reactions or not, it was time to get to work.

* * *

**INVESTIGATION START!**

* * *

Step one: the body. It was a messy sight. The blade protuding out of Hibiki's throat tore through the flesh cleanly, leaving tethered remains covered in thick, hot pink blood. Hibiki was on Nicholas' left side of the bed, the side closest to the door. In a straight line starting from Hibiki's neck toward the other end, was a splatter of blood. It also puddled around the wound itself. As for the other side of Hibiki, blood trailed down the side of the mattress. Nicholas noticed a clean straight cut in the mattress, perfectly in line with the wound. The blood continued on the ground, leaving a trail of tiny splotches out into the hallway.

Nicholas would remember from looking at his ElectroID that there was an 'Evidence' tab. It wasn't clear how it worked, but Nicholas had an idea. He figured now was time to figure it out. Going to the Evidence page, Nicholas pressed the little plus button in the corner, and it gave him a new page. There were two text boxes, one reading Title and the other Description. There was also the ability to take a picture, utilizing the camera of the ElectroID.

_This must be so we can list evidence..._

"You look like you figured something out." Seymour approached Nicholas.

"Take a look. We're supposed to add whatever evidence we find here, I guess." Nicholas replies, showing the journalist his ID.

"Try it out." Seymour says.

Nicholas does so.

* * *

_New pieces of evidence (3) has been added. [Read]_

_-Autopsy Report_

_Hibiki_ _has a knife stuck through his throat. As far as I can tell without touching the body, this is his only wound. The blade starts at the base on Hibiki's right, and comes out his left at a 45 degree angle upward. Considering his peaceful facial expression, I must assume he was sleeping. Also, it's a clean cut._

_(Attached is a picture of Hibiki's body.)_

_\- Added by Nicholas White_

_-Blood_

_Starting at the wound, there's a splatter of blood going all the way to the other end of the bed. It also puddles around the neck._

_Additionally, there's a trail of tiny splotches going out to the hallway._

_(Attached are pictures of the splatter, and the trail in Hibiki's room.)_

_\- Added by Nicholas White_

_-Mattress_

_There's a straight cut in the mattress perfectly in line with Hibiki's wound._

_(Attached is a picture of the cut.)_

_\- Added by Nicholas White_

* * *

While Nicholas was adding evidence, students were leaving the room. Some opted to search other parts of the hotel, some left the building entirely. Gabriel returned to his room-this was all just a bit much right now. His thoughts continued drifting back to the night before, and his conversation with Hibiki.

_"Your hair's pretty messy. What do you say I clean it up sometime?"_

It was only hours ago. Just before Gabriel went to sleep for the night, Hibiki made the offer to cut his hair. Despite the situation, Gabriel didn't think Hibiki'd _die_ before that happened. He supposed his hair would stay in its unkempt state.

Closing the door behind him, Gabriel entered his room. He stood at the door for a moment, sighing before walking in. His first thought was to go rest on his bed, but something out of the corner of his eye distracted him. The object was the trash can in the corner of the room, next to his desk. Gabriel remembered it being empty, but something was in it now?

The Engineer emptied the trash can, inspecting the objects inside. What he found were pieces of scrap metal, a spring, an attenna, and a _camera_. _I don't remember this..._ Gabriel thought to himself. He certainly didn't put it there. If he didn't, then who did?

It was concerning, but Gabriel decided to shrug it off for now. He decided to put everything back how it was when he found it, and went to rest in his bed.

* * *

Walking the streets outside the hotel's walls were Hoshiko and Shiori. The morning sun shone down on the two, accompanied with a slight breeze. Unlike the past couple days, the sun was not hidden by clouds. It seemed a little backwards; an overcast sky when the worst hasn't come yet, and a sunny blue one when the worst hit like a batter going for a homerun. Alas, the weather was not of most concern.

"I think I read about you somewhere," Hoshiko says, "You are the Ultimate Composer, right?"

"Yeah," Shiori nods.

"Hey, I'm the Ultimate Violinist. Maybe you could write a song for me to play one of these days." Hoshiko gives a small smile.

"Of course," Shiori says quietly. "But where are you going to find a violin?"

"...I don't know." Hoshiko frowns.

Thick tension filled the air between the duo. As much as they wanted to cut it out, neither party made any real attempts. Was now really the time for social events? Sure, it was the time to get together as a real group. But nobody was being social for _fun._ At least, not now. Perhaps not ever. It finally began to settle in that this was all for real.

While walking down the block, Hoshiko and Shiori looked through the glass doors and windows for anything of interest and related to Hibiki's death. Hoshiko was being awfully trusting, having been the one to invite Shiori out to walk. She doubted any of the students actually killed Hibiki. She had one culprit in mind, and that was Monokuma. Shiori was different, however. She didn't know who did it, but for all she knew, it could have been Hoshiko.

The two passed by a hardware store. Hoshiko noticed something through the window. She couldn't quite tell what, but it looked like a mess.

"Hey, wait, Shiori. I see something." Hoshiko says. Shiori notices it too, as they walk inside.

The hardware store was full with all kinds of tools. Hammers, drills, nails, wood, metal... if you were a builder, it'd be paradise. The building was absolutely huge, with more open space than any other building they've seen. Some of the shelves on the walls went up to the ceiling, which must have been somewhere between ten and fifteen feet in the air. What Hoshiko saw was one of these shelves-except it was down on the floor, as if it fell over. The girls went straight for the shelf, investigating.

The fallen shelf was made of reinforced steel, and other metals seemed to be its stock. Random sheets of metal lay on the floor, which probably sat on the shelves before it fell. What was interesting though, was the fourth shelf. Nothing was there. The entire thing was on the floor, but you could at least tell that each shelf was full at one point. Not the fourth. Was it full before?

"What do you think happened here?" Hoshiko asks.

"I don't know... somebody knocked it over?" Shiori suggests.

"Maybe..."

Nearby were much smaller shelves that weren't on the walls, but rather took up the area inside the building. After some time hunting around, another shelf of interest was found.

"What's this one for? Springs?" Hoshiko circled around the shelf, looking at its contents.

"Looks like it. Is something wrong with it?" Shiori then asks.

"I think there's a missing box..." Hoshiko says thoughtfully.

Sure enough, the shelf was full with boxes of springs. What caught Hoshiko's attention was the fact that there was a space where a box would fit perfectly. Could someone have taken a box of springs?

"This is weird... I didn't think we'd actually find anything." Hoshiko bites her lip.

"Why not?" Shiori asks.

"I mean, Monokuma killed Hibiki, right...? So why would he leave evidence behind?" Hoshiko replies.

"You think it was Monokuma?"

"Who else would it be?"

"One of us..."

"No way. I don't think any of us could actually do that... er, right?" Hoshiko asks, concerned.

"Maybe." Shiori murmurs.

"I guess we'll see..."

* * *

_New pieces of evidence (2) has been added. [Read]_

_-Shelf_

_A big shelf in the hardware store fell over. I think it's for metal? The fourth shelf is empty._

_(Attached are pictures of the shelf, including the empty one.)_

_\- Added by Hoshiko Hanazawa_

_-Springs_

_Uh, I don't know about this one, but I think someone took some springs. Look at the picture..._

_(Attached is a picture of the shelf with the missing springs.)_

_\- Added by Hoshiko Hanazawa_

* * *

William was found in the hallway outside the rooms. The Cheater took a knee, examining the blood on the ground closely. His investigation was silent, up until an assisting person came by.

"Do you need any help?" Zéphyrine stood above William.

"Sure, why not." William shrugged.

"So there's blood all the way out here..." Zéphyrine commented, kneeling down to William's level.

"It's peculiar. These little splotches come out about... halfway down the hall, and just _stop._ What happened here?" William inquired.

"Interesting." Zéphyrine murmurs. "Maybe there was simply no more blood?"

"But here's the question: if Hibiki died in his room, _then why would there be blood outside at all?_" William replies.

"It's far too early for me to make any theories. You should add this to the evidence list, though." Zéphyrine says, about to get up.

"The what now?" William furrows his brow.

Zéphyrine stayed in her position. "You haven't seen all the ElectroID notifications?"

"Electro...?"

"The devices we got the other night. Here, I will do it." Zéphyrine explains.

* * *

_Evidence (1) has been updated._

_-Blood_

_Starting at the wound, there's a splatter of blood going all the way to the other end of the bed. It also puddles around the neck._

_Additionally, there's a trail of tiny splotches going out to the hallway. The hallway trail goes out to the left side of the residential hallway. About halfway through, the trail mysteriously stops._

_(Attached are pictures of the splatter, the trail in Hibiki's room, and the trail outside.)_

_\- Added by Nicholas White_

_\- Updated by Zéphyrine Giroux_

* * *

Afterward, Zéphyrine and William split. Zéphyrine took a quick, simple look around the second floor of the hotel, finding nothing, resorting to taking the elevator downstairs. At first, it's clear nothing happened on the first floor. Until one of the plants catches her eye. Raising a brow, Zéphyrine approaches it. The soil wasn't flat like she remembered it before, it was disturbed. Unsure of what to make of it, Zéphyrine takes a picture of the soil before investigating.

Zéphyrine seemed okay with getting her hands dirty, as she shoved the soil around. Her thoughts were confirmed.

Sitting hidden in the soil are about a dozen napkins soaked in a pink substance. Had someone tried to dispose of the napkins? It wasn't sure exactly what happened here, but Zéphyrine added her findings to the evidence list.

* * *

_A new piece of evidence has been found. [Read]_

_Napkins_

_Hidden in the soil of one of the hotel lobby's plants were these napkins. I believe they're soaked in blood._

_(Attached are pictures of the plant before Zéphyrine dug into the soil, and after-revealing the napkins.)_

_\- Added by Zéphyrine Giroux_

* * *

Some more time passed. Nicholas, Seymour, Daiki, and William stood together outside the hotel. Nicholas had his ElectroID in his hand, reading over all the evidence added. Seymour read from it as well. William found a bottle of soda and drank from it, talking to a reluctant Daiki.

"So, any theories yet?" William asked.

"No." Daiki replied bluntly.

"Nothing? At all?" William asked again.

"No." Daiki replied bluntly. Again.

"Damn." William said, gulping down some of his soda.

On Nicholas' ElectroID were the pictures of Hibiki's body. The trial of Hibiki Yukata was to begin in about twenty minutes according to the device's clock, and Nicholas had not a single suspect in mind. It didn't make sense.

"Could it have been suicide?" Nicholas suggests. "The door was likely locked the whole time."

"How did the blood get into the hallway then?" Seymour asks. "Plus, I doubt Hibiki jammed a knife through his throat like that."

"That's the next mystery. The blade's at a forty-five degree angle. The killer didn't miss; it's a straight cut, as if they _tried_ to make that cut... why?" Nicholas asks, sighing after. "I don't understand."

"Guess it'll all come out in the trial." Seymour replies.

"And what if it doesn't?" Nicholas pockets his ElectroID. "We mess this up, we all pay for it."

"...well, let's just hope it does."

* * *

Kinzoku sat alone at a table in the food court. In front of her wasn't food, drinks, an ElectroID, but instead was the motive from the day before. She eyed the pictures with an empty look, looking them over. In specific, the wounds inflicted to her father. Perhaps as a cruel joke to the Roboticist, her father was quite robotic himself-as in, metal was stabbed into him in all different places. A large chunk stuck out of his eyelid like a sore thumb, others were jammed underneath his fingernails, and other unspeakable things. Anger seeped through Kinzoku, but she did nothing about it.

"Ah... hello."

Rina approached Kinzoku. She took a seat opposite of the paraplegic, a solemn expression present on her face.

"Yes? What do you want?" Kinzoku asked bitterly, not taking her eyes off the photos.

"Well, you look upset... how are you?" Rina asked a question of her own, placing her arms covered by the same green jacket as before onto the table.

Kinzoku didn't reply. It was clear she took a blow.

"I'm sorry." Rina apologizes.

"And for what?" Kinzoku rolls her grey eyes.

"I-I don't know. Just..." Rina trails off, sighing. "Are you ready for the trial?"

Kinzoku pauses. "I doubt anyone is."

"I know I'm not." Rina agrees.

Silence plagues the two for a while. Neither knew how to break it. Neither knew if breaking it at all was even a good idea. And so, it remains.

* * *

**Ding, dong, ding, dong.**

"Well, that's enough of that! Investigation's over, come to Despair Square now! This is what it all comes down to-it's time for Class Trial!"

The trial was about to begin. Nicholas watched as a public transit bus rolled up to the hotel's entrance, and swallowed as he boarded, followed by Seymour, Daiki, and William. _It's time,_ he thought. _I am not ready for this, we had barely any time for god's sake! This whole case makes zero sense..._

Nicholas was pretty headache-free that morning, but as he got into the vehicle it all came right back. He felt the sensation that he must be forgetting something. Something _extremely_ important. Try as he might, not a single clue came to mind. Accompanying this feeling was another, that Nicholas identified as _familiar._ What's so familiar about this? He doesn't remember doing this before. At least that he was sure about, no weird feelings or doubt about that. Nicholas is also suddenly reminded of the word 'despair', again. What the hell is all of this?

"Nick. Hey, stay with us." Seymour nudged Nicholas in the arm, breaking him from his concentration on his thoughts.

"Yeah..." Nicholas nodded.

Soon enough, the bus was full of students. The sixteen survivors sat down, and the doors closed. Despite there being no driver, the engine started, and the bus was in motion.

Nicholas could only stare out the window for the long, quiet drive.

* * *

"There's really nothing we can do..."

Four young men from Camp Hope stood in front of a large screen, watching the events of Nicholas' game. They watched from a camera installed in the transit bus.

"Quiet, Takeo. I know Nick, he's gonna make it through this. And I don't know anything about the others, but... this trial's gonna bring 'em together, they'll survive." Kagome says, opening up a pack of cigarettes.

"I'm sorry, guys..." Hitaka sighs, "I've been trying to get people to work on finding him, but..."

"Even the leader has his higher ups, hm?" Kagome replies.

"Y'know, I kinda wonder why I'm even bothering with this right now." Tarou, the Ultimate Developer adds. "What's so important about this Nicholas? He's a fucking _cop,_ for god's sake."

"Shut the hell up, Tarou." Kagome snaps.

"Hey, I mean, we could be putting more effort into finding that broad. The Executioner, or whatever. That'd actually be a good fucking idea." Tarou clicks his tongue. "Yet we're wasting our time here."

"Well... we really don't know enough about The Executioner. We don't know what she looks like, her name..." Takeo looks away.

"And if we just _forget_ about Nicholas, we could know all of-"

Tarou is promptly shut up by Kagome's backhand to the face. He glares into Tarou's eyes with anger, as Tarou stares back with shock.

"Hitaka, why do we exist?" Kagome asks, without moving his eyes.

"Faith exists to do what the Future Foundation can't." Hitaka says.

"Yeah. You're talkin' like the Foundation, Tarou. You wanna go sign up, huh? Maybe you're in the wrong fucking group." Kagome says, angrily.

"Wait, Kagome. He's helping us..." Takeo says.

"Tch, maybe I should. Fuck all of you." Tarou leaves the room, slamming the door on his way out.

"Bastard. Never liked him." Kagome scoffs.

"If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have these camera feeds." Hitaka says, trying to make a point. "I'd try to make peace, if I were you."

"One day, not today." Kagome replies. He lights his cigarette, going back to watching the screen.

* * *

**EVIDENCE LIST**

* * *

_-Autopsy Report_

_Hibiki has a knife stuck through his throat. As far as I can tell without touching the body, this is his only wound. The blade starts at the base on Hibiki's right, and comes out his left at a 45 degree angle upward. Considering his peaceful facial expression, I must assume he was sleeping. Also, it's a clean cut._

_(Attached is a picture of Hibiki's body.)_

_\- Added by Nicholas White_

_-Blood_

_Starting at the wound, there's a splatter of blood going all the way to the other end of the bed. It also puddles around the neck._

_Additionally, there's a trail of tiny splotches going out to the hallway._

_The hallway trail goes out to the left side of the residential hallway. About halfway through, the trail mysteriously stops._

_(Attached are pictures of the splatter, the trail in Hibiki's room, and the trail outside.)_

_\- Added by Nicholas White_

_\- Updated by Zéphyrine Giroux_

_-Mattress_

_There's a straight cut in the mattress perfectly in line with Hibiki's wound._

_(Attached is a picture of the cut.)_

_\- Added by Nicholas White_

_-Shelf_

_A big shelf in the hardware store fell over. I think it's for metal? The fourth shelf is empty._

_(Attached are pictures of the shelf, including the empty one.)_

_\- Added by Hoshiko Hanazawa_

_-Springs_

_Uh, I don't know about this one, but I think someone took some springs. Look at the picture..._

_(Attached is a picture of the shelf with the missing springs.)_

_\- Added by Hoshiko Hanazawa_

_-Napkins_

_Hidden in the soil of one of the hotel lobby's plants were these napkins. I believe they're soaked in blood._

_(Attached are pictures of the plant before Zéphyrine dug into the soil, and after-revealing the napkins.)_

_\- Added by Zéphyrine Giroux_

* * *

[A/N: REST IN PEACE HIBIKI YUKATA. He was a good man. Up until someone fucking killed him. Why. Why can't these guys just get along.

Anyways, yeah, not a lot of evidence, short investigation here. It's a liiiittle more complicated than it looks, I'll tell you that now. As we move on with the story though, murders will get more in-depth and messed up. God I can't wait for that. Btw, I recommend keeping this open during the trial chapter, you might want to look at evidence as we go along.

OH YEAH, I need to inform you all of a thing called ZenWriter. I just found it on tumblr like a few days ago and it's so good. Basically, you can write in full screen with no distractions, it comes with its own music, and it's like cool. Only problem is, it ain't free. There's a free trial for 15 days though (which is what I have).

Review time:

Shadedlyht: Thank you so much! I tried my best to implement those suggestions. And sorry about Hibiki hahahaha

JokersMaze: Eh, more likely than not it's my very slow updating pace. I'll try to make them longer I suppose, but if you're referring to those last three parts, I kinda made them short on purpose since they aren't part of the actual game. Trying to keep some mystery around those parts. Thanks!

C. /CrimsonSkyTamer: You did indeed leave a review on your actual account. Man, these OCs are so damn old, after this story I swear I'm never using any of them again.

PSISomething: Lemme tell you one thing: I have the ending more or less fully planned out and it's going to be insane, if I do say so myself. The last chapter was probably the most important one so far because of all those developments tbh. The Seymour sprite is up on my main page, if anybody else would like to see it. Thank youuu

IfTimeWasStill: My apologies for the long update times. And yeah, that's just my style of writing. One second you'll be here and the next you're over there. I like to show outside perspectives. I was just kinda trying to throw in all the perspectives in there last chapter, I'll try to make it flow better next time.

Let'sTalkAboutMurder: Thanks! Hikaru hasn't gotten a lot of screentime, I realize. I must fix this.

Saiynt: "I alt-tabbed faster than Chuck Norris punching someone into oblivion" FALSE, that's impossible. Stop that. Shhh. I figured keeping it focused on _just_ the students could get a little boring so I was just like "nah son" and suddenly all these other people are involved like woah. Anyways, thanks for the long review mon ami.

dashunterman: Thanks man. That's kinda what I was going for yeah, Storyteller's just straight up fucking insane.

Integras: Oh yes, you're right. I should just stop writing everyone else and strictly write Bert only then this story would be even better than it already is.

Well, Class Trial numero uno is up next. Y'all ready for this? I hope not, because it's going to take me about the same time to go to Mars, back, and to Mars again to write it. Even then it probably won't be done. WELL we'll see. Thanks all!]


	7. Class Trial 1 Part 1

"Takeo, it's me."

"Ryan? Where's Logan?"

"I don't know. Place is empty."

"Oh, crap..."

Walking the desolate hallways of a high-security prison was one Ryan White. Holding his breath so not to smell the blood of prior events, he carefully steps over a raw, red chunk of meat, not even wanting to think about where it came from. His eyes check each of the cells, each one full with blood, but not a single one had a soul. In this prison was supposed to be Ryan's younger brother-Logan.

"If I stay in here, my nose is gonna shrivel up and fall off my damn face. Should I leave?" Ryan asks, through his earpiece.

"Well, I mean... we need to find Logan..." Takeo replies. He's back at Camp Hope, talking to Ryan in a communications room. "Can you find any evidence where they went?"

"I was a detective..." Ryan mutters, "Alright, yeah, whatever. Call you in a bit, take care."

"Seeya." Takeo says, ending the transmission.

* * *

Back at the city, the students made it to Despair Square. Waiting for them was none other than Monokuma. As the bus unloaded, nobody said a word. Not even Monokuma. The bus remained where it was, as the bear walked over to the bridge blocking the Square from the next part of the city. It was blocked off by comically large chains, and a single huge lock in the center. Monokuma had a comically large key for the comically large lock, and unlocked it right in front of us. The chains fell to the ground.

"Well, here ya go, kids! Next part of town unlocked! Y'all get to explore after! Well, that is, if any of you survive. Sadly, the culprit won't be able to... they're either outta here or _outta here._" Monokuma says. "Anyway, get back in the damn bus."

_Next part already? I won't complain... that much closer to finding a way out of here, now. Maybe there's an airport. Er, more preferably, a train station. Something that doesn't fly... if only we had an Ultimate Pilot._ Nicholas internally monologues. Deciding he has nothing to say to Monokuma, he gets back in the bus, as does everyone else.

The bus keeps moving. After crossing the bridge, it's immediately noticed that this part of town is not as grand as where the students initially awoke, with less shops and recreational buildings, and more richer and fancier places such as well established restaurants and condos. Nicholas noticed the bus passing by a shopping mall and a hospital, which he mentally jotted down.

As they keep going, the buildings become less and less. Next thing they knew, the students went up a ramp and onto a giant six-lane highway. The bus goes through an underpass, with a sign on the bridge above. Whatever was on it at one point was crossed out with a hot pink 'x' and Monokuma's face in the middle, much like a skull and crossbones. Aside from the non-active streetlights, the highway was completely bare. On the outside of each lane were small, steep grassy hills, with walls cutting off the highway from whatever was on the other side, though Nicholas caught the roofs of a few residential houses.

"Soo..." Hikaru's voice cuts through the silence infiltrating the bus. Like her attire has been the past few days, she was in a comfortable pair of athletic shorts and a t-shirt. "Anyone have any idea where we're going?" Hikaru asks.

"Looks like out of town..." Durion suggests.

Nicholas suddenly remembers the map. He instinctively reaches into his jacket for it, only to realize he didn't _bring_ a jacket. "Did anyone bring a map?" he asks.

"Yeah." Tennoyama replies. She waves her rolled up map in the air, before unrolling it and taking a look. "This ain't helpin'."

"Oh, hey. What's that place up there?" Hikaru asks Tennoyama, looking over her shoulder from behind.

"What?"

"That thing." Hikaru points somewhere on the map.

"Some kinda buildin', I don't know." Tennoyama replies.

"Looks like it could be a warehouse...?" Hoshiko, sitting next to Tennoyama, suggests.

"Is it where we're going?" Nicholas asks.

"Hey, yeah, I think so." Tennoyama says, looking at the map in closer detail. "There's a path from th' "downtown district" out to the next area and outta town to some, well, warehouse I suppose."

"So a warehouse is the setting for Class Trial..." Seymour, from next to Nicholas, says.

"That's a bit concerning." Ryoko says from the window seat behind Seymour.

"Hey, Nick. Catch." Tennoyama says, rolling up the map and suddenly whipping it at Nicholas like a football. He instinctively reaches out, and it fumbles about in his hands before he gets a proper grip on it.

"Thanks." Nicholas says, assuming she gave it to him so he can check out the path, but the first thing he notices when he unrolled the map was something else rather peculiar.

"That wasn't like that when I checked my map." Seymour comments, looking over at Nicholas' map.

The district next to downtown was completely blacked out, Nicholas remembered. But for whatever reason, it was like that no longer.

"You have your map with you?" Nicholas asks, to which Seymour shakes his head. Confused, Nicholas throws the map back to Tennoyama.

"And what was that about?" Daiki asks from near the back of the bus, raising a brow in equal confusion.

"There's maps in the hotel. Everywhere except downtown, where we woke up, was blacked out. Now, the district next to downtown is completely clear." Nicholas explains.

"Swear to god I didn't do that. Map was on my desk all night and all of a sudden it's like that." Tennoyama says, putting up her hands in defense.

"Monokuma?" William suggests. "He could've snuck in and fixed your map?"

"Okay, whoever you even are, why in all bloody hell would he wanna do that?" Tennoyama turns around to face William, her absolute confoundment present in her facial expression.

"Don't ask me. Why in all bloody hell would he want to kidnap us and make us kill each other?" William shoots back.

With that, the silence from before suddenly falls on the group again. Right. Kill each other. _That's why we're here._ Somebody _did _kill someone. In cold blood.

"We're not all making it back alive." Kinzoku brings up, from farther back. The bus' chairs folded up, according to how some were indeed folded and Kinzoku's wheelchair took their spot.

"What do you mean? Of- of course we will!" Rina protests. Her voice is clearly strained.

"No we won't." Seymour agrees with Kinzoku.

"Unfortunately..." Zéphyrine trails off, also agreeing. She sighs.

"All of us will make it back!" Rina says, still protesting. "I refuse to believe someone _else_ is going to die..."

"Did you even read the rules?" Kinzoku asks, bitterly. "Rules say it plain and clear. Either the culprit dies or everyone except the culprit dies. We're taking this bus to someone's death."

"Well, if that's true, then Monokuma's gonna die. No real problem there." Rina replies, a bit quieter.

"You're so ignorant..." Kinzoku sneers.

"Excuse me?" Rina asks, head snapping around to face Kinzoku.

"I said, _you're so goddamned ignorant._" Kinzoku repeats herself, grinding her teeth.

"Please. Explain." Rina says, eye twitching as she attempts to keep her calm.

_Lord, here we go._ Nicholas thinks.

"Does everyone in this bus still think that bear did it?" Kinzoku asks. "Because he didn't. It was someone sitting in this bus _right now!_"

"You sound awfully sure..." Durion comments.

"She does have a point." Seymour adds. "It wasn't Monokuma."

"Shut up, shut up, shut up..." Rina says, turning back around and facing forward-or, down at her feet. "I... god, I don't want to do this. Holy Roman Empire, I don't want to do this." Her voice quieted down to not much more than a whisper.

Soon enough, the bus becomes absolutely silent. Not another word is said.

* * *

"Isn't it funny? This always happens. Every time, never fails! They preach about how they'll never fall to despair, never kill anyone, and look what happens. They're already on their way to the first Class Trial."

The Storyteller sat in the passenger seat of an armored vehicle, watching the bus make its way to the Class Trial on a small TV in the console. His legs were up on the dashboard and his seat was set back, as he reclined leisurely. The vehicle drove on an empty two-lane road with nothing but dust and dirt in all directions. Above the truck was a dark night sky, crescent moon illuminating the lone road. Little stars could be seen, for there was just too much pollution in the air.

"They're getting pretty predictable." the driver says.

"Getting? Oh, come on Mihane. This literally happened in your game. This has been going on forever!" The Storyteller replies. It couldn't be seen due to the mask covering his face, but he rolled his eyes.

"Apologies. It has." Mihane agrees, seeing little other choice.

"Happened in mine, too." he murmurs. "I don't even remember who the first victim was. Can you remind me?"

"Kasai."

"Right! Thank you. Always on task, Mi." The Storyteller laughs. "Thanks. Love ya."

Silence is his only reply.

* * *

**Some time later...**

* * *

"Alright, you bastards! Let's get a move on! We're here!"

The bus comes to a stop on some gravel outside a large building, with nothing but bare wasteland around. The door opens and there stands Monokuma, getting everyone out.

_Here we go._

Everybody pours out of the bus, and no one says a word to each other. The group gets the idea and starts walking to the warehouse in front of them. Nicholas takes the lead.

_This is it._

Nicholas steps over a hard, rocky white object. If he didn't know any better he'd say it was a bone.

_Time for the truth._

The crunching of gravel underneath everyone's shoes was the only sound to be heard for miles.

_They were right. We're not all going to come back alive._

The officer takes a deep breath, as his hands slowly ball into fists.

_Someone's going to die. Either the killer, or all of us._

He approaches the front doors. Gripping the handles tightly, he pushes it inward, opening the warehouse.

_This is it. The Class Trial to live... or the Class Trial to die._

* * *

**The Trial of Hibiki Yukata, the Ultimate Hairdresser - Begin**

**SURVIVORS: 16/17**

* * *

The warehouse's interior was illuminated by a single, dim lightbulb danging from the center of the ceiling. Shelves went up to the roof, stacked with boxes full of all sorts of things. And in the middle, were seventeen stands, much like a witness stand in a courtroom, arranged in a circle. One was noticeably shorter, probably a bit more than half the size of the others.

"**Welcome to Class Trial!**" Monokuma announces. He's seen sitting in a tall throne overseeing the circle. In his paw is a judge's gavel. "Please, find your stand! Kinzoku, yours should be bear-y obvious."

Sure enough, names were carved into the varnished wooden stands. Kinzoku drove her wheelchair to the shorter stand, which seemed to be hers. Everyone found their stand soon enough. Nicholas found himself facing the front door, with Annie on his right and Rina on his left. With the way the circle was set up, each student could see one another perfectly. On the side of the stands facing the inside of the circle were the names and Ultimates of their respective owners, so everyone else could see. Hibiki's had a portrait of his face behind it, in black and white with a pink 'X' over it, pushing the fact that he was _dead_ even further in.

"Oh, by the way, you're gonna wanna put your ElectroIDs in your stand. Don't worry if you didn't bring yours, I got you covered-check your pockets. I'm a generous bear, y'know?" Monokuma says, putting his paw on his chin.

There were rectangular indents in the wood, underneath where everyone's names were carved. Also there was a plug. As the students would notice, there's a place in the ID that it'd go into, and so everyone plugs their ElectroIDs in. They come to light, with the words 'CLASS TRIAL' in pink, splattered writting-like blood-on a black background.

"You sure you want to do this?" Nicholas asks Monokuma. "Look, you know who I am. Sargent Nicholas White of Special Unit. I know people. I can give you whatever it is you want, we have money bags waiting for you."

"I also know that you've never once negotiated with terrorists-not that I like to call myself one." Monokuma replies. "Last time you tried that, you captured the guy and shoved a razor blade in his eyeball."

"You know too much..."

"While I'd... _really_ like to know the story behind that one, I think we have more important matters..." Rina says, giving side-glances to Nicholas. "Should we get on with the trial now?"

"Please, let's..." Seymour agrees. He rests his camera on the stand, recording the events about to unfold.

"See, they get it! Would y'all like a walkthrough of Class Trial?" Monokuma asks, to which more or less everyone agrees to it.

"**Class Trial is when you find the one who killed your fellow classmate.** Yes, it was one of you. Yes, they're in this very room. No, I had nothing to do with it. There's an interesting way to how it all goes down, however..." Monokuma begins explaining.

"**If you notice, the front of your ElectroID has a hologram emitter.**" As he says this, a hologram of Monokuma suddenly appears in front of everybody, coming out from on top of their ElectroIDs' screens. "**There will be points when you present evidence to prove your point. Simply press the 'present' button on your ID.**"

Everyone's ElectroIDs change from the 'CLASS TRIAL' screen to the evidence page. Each piece of evidence added is listed, and at the top is a little button reading 'present' with an arrow on top. Nicholas' ElectroID is used for the example, as the ElectroID emits a hologram of Hibiki's body into the center of the circle where everyone can see. On Nicholas' ID, it changes from all the evidence to the Hibiki's body piece. He can choose from each picture to emit into the circle, which Monokuma explained. The ability to go back to the page is given, as well as being able to add new evidence.

"**Every so often, a minigame will be activated. These are usually very quickly paced, and you may be presenting evidence in rapid fire.**" Monokuma continues, explaining each game.

Nonstop Debate. Sometimes a specific topic will come up, such as the murder weapon, and everyone will debate it out as to what happened. Everyone's words in this time period will show up in a small hologram directly in front of each person. Using the controls on their ElectroIDs, one would choose a line of dialogue and either agree with it, or disagree by presenting evidence to knock down that claim. The ability to use someone's words against another is also an option.

Panic Talk Action. Obviously, the culprit will not want to be caught. But when you get on their case, this is what will put them down for good. It's a one-on-one rapid fire argument, in which the innocent insists on the other being the killer. Once they finally get through to them, they present a final argument-done by putting the four words on their ElectroIDs in correct order.

Rebuttal Showdown. The trial may be leaning to one's argument. But if someone has other ideas, they will counter that person's argument with their own, and the two engage in a duel until one side convinces the other of their argument.

"There'll be more. But that's not important. Now, it's time for the trial to begin!" Monokuma exclaims, breaking out into insane laughter.

"Here we go... are you ready?" Annie asks, looking over to her neighbour.

"Ready as I'll ever be, I suppose." Nicholas replies, "You?"

Annie nods. "I agree. We'll make it through this."

Nicholas also nods. "Yeah. Let's go."

* * *

**BEGIN CLASS TRIAL 1: THE CASE OF HIBIKI YUKATA**

* * *

"How do you propose we start?" Nicholas asks Monokuma.

"I dunno. What's gonna get you to Hibiki's killer?" Monokuma shrugs.

"Let's start with how he was killed, then?" Seymour suggests.

"He was stabbed and that was 'bout it. What is there to talk about?" Tennoyama crosses her arms.

"No, no... it's pretty peculiar. We should." Nicholas says.

"Upupu, looks like we're getting started..." Monokuma puts his paws over his mouth, giggling.

* * *

**NONSTOP DEBATE**

_Weak points are in italics. __**Break points are in bold and italics. **__Agree break points are in italics and underlined._

EVIDENCE: **Autopsy Report, Monokuma File #1, Blood, Mattress**

Tennoyama: Still don't get what there is to talk about. _Hibiki was stabbed through the throat._

Seymour: If only it were that convenient...

Tennoyama: Is it not?

William: I agree with Tennoyama... **it looks like Hibiki was simply stabbed through the throat and that was about it.**

Nicholas: **I'm afraid that's wrong!**

Evidence Used: **Autopsy Report**

* * *

Nicholas emits a picture of Hibiki's wound. "Look at the wound. **It's not just any wound-it's at a forty-five degree angle.**"

"Huh. So?" William asks, "I mean, if you're standing above someone and **you stab downward, it could be forty-five degrees...**"

"That's if the entry point was higher than the exit point. **Except, it wasn't. The killer stabbed Hibiki from the bottom of the left side of his neck, and the blade came out higher on the right side.**" Nicholas explains.

"Still... nothing wrong with that, no?" William raises a brow.

"Well, think about it. I just find it very odd, considering how it'd be much easier to stab someone in a straight line, or maybe like you meant, a forty-five degree angle in which the entry is higher than the exit." Nicholas replies.

_Don't I have evidence for this...?_

* * *

**PRESENT**

_Present the correct evidence._

1\. Autopsy Report

2\. Monokuma File #1

**3\. Mattress**

4\. Blood

5\. Napkins

Nicholas: **Got it.**

* * *

"Not to mention, the mattress." Nicholas says, presenting the mattress piece of evidence.

"The cut." Ryoko says, noticing where Nicholas is going with this.

"Exactly. There's a cut in the mattress **exactly in line with the wound.**" Nicholas says.

"Soo... the culprit missed and got the mattress, too?" Hikaru suggests.

"Wouldn't quite explain why the cuts are so clean." Durion says.

"Yeah," Nicholas agrees, "Both the cut in the bed and Hibiki's wound are perfectly straight and clean. **It's as if someone wanted to make that cut.**"

"They wanted to cut the _mattress?_" Hikaru asks.

"I'm... not sure, but the straightness and cleanness suggests it was no accident..." Nicholas says, although he had doubts in his own claim.

* * *

Seymour: **You really sure about that?**

* * *

"That cut was an accident. And, I'd even say the angle wasn't meant to be." Seymour claims.

"Oh? What makes you say that?" Nicholas raises a brow.

"Listen..." Seymour starts.

* * *

**REBUTTAL SHOWDOWN**

_Fight to prove your point!_

EVIDENCE: **Autopsy Report, Blood, Mattress, Springs**

FIGHT

Seymour: Now why would someone -/- _want_ to make such a cut?

Seymour: Here's a thought. What if -/- the killer had to do it?

Seymour: Something forced them to -/- do it. They must've attacked from a low point.

-/-

-/-

-/-

**PROGRESSION**

Nicholas: Nobody's that -/- short.

Nicholas: What kind of situation would -/- force someone to attack from so low?

Nicholas: Hibiki was sleeping, he wasn't going -/- anywhere. How does one miss a non-moving target, and have gotten the bed?

Nicholas: **For whatever reason, the **-/-** culprit wanted to make this cut!**

Seymour: **Tch, I'll have to write an article about you after this!**

Evidence Used: **Springs**

* * *

"What if the killer didn't even use their hands?" Seymour asks. "What if the blade was spring-loaded?"

"What the hell do you mean?" Nicholas shoots his own question back, looking at the hologram of the shelf missing springs from the hardware store.

"Simple. A spring was used to shoot the knife into Hibiki." Seymour says.

"What makes you so sure? That doesn't even make any sense-if you're gonna be close enough to use a spring, then why not just do it yourself?" Nicholas retorts.

"**What makes you say someone was even in his room?**" Seymour asks.

"Woah, okay, hold on!" Tennoyama exclaims, gripping her stand and leaning forward. "That was real amusing 'n all, but what the hell kinda claim is that?"

"I agree. That's just..." Kinzoku trails off.

"**Hibiki's room was locked. **This was proven by the fact that we had to bust it down this morning. **This could suggest no one but Hibiki was in his room to begin with!**" Seymour explains, a determined look in his eye.

There's a pause as Seymour taps at his ElectroID.

* * *

_A new piece of evidence has been added. [Read]_

_-Hibiki's Door_

_The door to Hibiki's room was locked. Assuming it stayed that way the whole time, it can be assumed nobody entered or left._

_\- Added by Seymour West_

* * *

"**Are you implying suicide?**" Kinzoku asks.

"No... it was definitely someone else's doing." Seymour answers.

"Here's a thought. **Who says nobody stole Hibiki's cardkey and got their way in, locking the door on the way out?**" Nicholas then asks a question of his own.

"Doubt it. But hold on, I have other ideas. Monokuma-question." Seymour says, changing the topic.

"Upupu. Yessir?" Monokuma is quick to answer.

"**Is there a gap under the doors?**" he asks.

"A gap... maybe. There could be indeed." Monokuma says, tilting his head.

"This is shaping out pretty well." Seymour chuckles.

"U-u-um... e-excuse me..." Gabriel suddenly speaks up.

"Yeah?"

"I-I found something... i-in my room e-earlier." Gabriel replies.

"Wait, what?" Nicholas says, quickly looking at his evidence for anything from Gabriel's room, finding nothing. "What is it?" he quickly looks up to meet Gabriel's eyes with his own.

"I-I didn't put it there but... th-there was s-some garbage in my room..." Gabriel explains. "Metal, a-a spring, an attenna, a camera, a-and some wheels."

"How much?" Seymour asks.

"U-uh, n-not a lot." Gabriel answers.

"I see. Can you tell us anything else?" Seymour nods.

"...the wheels were kind of sticky." Gabriel says.

Seymour then goes quiet, tapping away at his ElectroID once more.

* * *

_A new piece of evidence has been added. [Read]_

_-Garbage_

_In the trash can in Gabriel's room were pieces of metal, a spring, an attenna, a camera, and wheels. Apparently, "not a lot"._

_\- Added by Seymour West_

* * *

"Sounds like you know a lot there." Kinzoku comments.

"Suppose I have some ideas." Seymour replies.

"Please, enlighten us." Kinzoku says, sarcastically.

"I don't know who did it yet... but I think I know how it went down." Seymour says, starting to explain.

* * *

**ANSWER**

_Choose the correct answer._

1\. A dwarf stabbed Hibiki.

2\. Hibiki committed suicide.

**3\. A robot was used to kill Hibiki.**

4\. Dark forces of evil from the seventh circle of Hell were summoned onto Hibiki.

Seymour: **This sounds right.**

* * *

"A spring-loaded robot was used to kill Hibiki. Hear me out." Seymour says, "**Springs were missing and found in Gabriel's room,** for starters. It had to be small to **get under the door's gap.** And..."

_There's one more part that seals it._

* * *

**HANGMAN'S GAMBIT**

_Find the word/clue to further the trial._

_/_/_/_/D

A

F

**B**

E

B/_/_/_/D

**O**

**O**

R

T

B_/OOD

P

S

C  
**L**

**BLOOD**

Seymour: **This is it!**

* * *

"I'm sure you all noticed the unusual splatter of blood. Everyone, take a look at the shape." Seymour says, bringing up a photo of the blood not on Hibiki, but on the bed next to him.

"**It splattered onto the rest of the bed?**" William asks.

"Correct. Why would it shoot out so far?" Seymour asks.

"Is this really quite so complicated?" Bert cuts in, finally speaking up. "**Wouldn't the blood just be there because Hibiki was stabbed?**"

"But if that were the case, would it have gone that far? And in such levels?" Seymour counters.

"It could only be like that if **the knife came in with a really high velocity...**" Rina comments.

Seymour points at Rina. "Exactly."

"Nothing proves the spring was even used." Kinzoku scoffs. "You realize that, right?"

"Why do you say that?" Seymour asks.

"Hmph. Take another look at the evidence." Kinzoku says, simply.

"I'd rather you explained..." Seymour sighs, to which Kinzoku shoots a sharp glare.

* * *

Kinzoku: **You need to build a better argument!**

* * *

"You're claiming there was a robot in close enough range to shoot a knife into Hibiki. Right?" Kinzoku deadpans.

Seymour nods.

"And splattered blood all over the place."

Nod.

"I bet you were gonna say that's why there's blood out in the hall. Robot left and tracked blood with it."

Nod.

"**Then I have a question for you...**"

* * *

**REBUTTAL SHOWDOWN**

_Fight to prove your point!_

EVIDENCE: **Blood, Springs, Garbage, Shelf, Napkins**

FIGHT

Kinzoku: Why was there no -/- blood on the spring?

Kinzoku: If this robot was close enough to -/- cause that kind of damage, there should have been some blood on it!

Kinzoku: In order for the robot to trail blood outside, -/- it shouldn't have been sparkling clean!

-/-

-/-

-/-

**PROGRESSION**

Seymour: Simple. It was -/- cleaned.

Seymour: It must've -/- gotten bloody.

Kinzoku: For what reason would you clean the robot? -/- Obviously they weren't that clean because there was a trail in the hall.

Kinzoku: **Face it, there was no robot! -/- The metal was just Gabriel tinkering around, he probably forgot!**

Seymour: **I guess you're getting an article too, huh?**

Evidence Used: **Napkins**

* * *

"Ah..." Zéphyrine notes the holographic pictures of the napkins, remembering taking them. "That's right. The soil was disturbed, so I investigated. There I found **these bloodied napkins.**"

Kinzoku scoffs again, eye twitching.

"Maybe the robot _did_ get blood on it. That would make sense. But **using the napkins, the robot was cleaned!**" Seymour adds.

"Oi, this is too much..." Tennoyama rubs her temples. "Look, if it was cleaned, then why was there still blood in the hall?"

"The pilot wasn't in the room with the robot. They had to drive it outside to meet it halfway and be able to clean it." Seymour says, still confident in all his claims.

"So let's get this straight, then..." Nicholas says, crossing his arms. "Somebody built a robot. Got some kind of kitchen knife or something. Loaded it into a spring, drove it under the gap to Hibiki's door, went up to the bed, and shot the knife into his throat. Then it drove back outside where the pilot cleaned it, and disposed of the napkins downstairs. Do I have all of this right so far?"

Seymour nods, confirming.

"Now how did the remains of the robot get into Gabriel's garbage can?" Nicholas then asks. "Remember, it was him who found the metal in the first place! I'm not so sure if robots can just, self-destruct in the garbage..."

"Oh. Wait, that I can get behind." Tennoyama speaks up. "Only one way it coulda ended up there."

"How?" Nicholas asks.

"**Gabriel put it there!**"

* * *

**NONSTOP DEBATE**

_Weak points are in italics. __**Break points are in bold and italics. **__Agree break points are in italics and underlined._

EVIDENCE: **Blood, Mattress, Garbage, Springs, Shelf**

Tennoyama: Gabriel, was yer door locked?

Gabriel: Wh-wh-I, _y-yeah, it was..._

Tennoyama: So that means _no one came into your room at all?_

Gabriel: I guess not...

Tennoyama: Then _Gabriel put the metal there!_ There was no one else who could have!

Ryoko: Wait a moment... _are you claiming Gabriel killed Hibiki!?_

Tennoyama: Exactly! _Isn't he the Ultimate Engineer!?_ He wouldn't have a problem makin' a robot death machine!

Ryoko: But... something doesn't quite add up...

Gabriel: I-I didn't put it there! I-I-how could I-I have k-killed Hibiki!? _And if I-I killed him, and planted e-evidence i-in my r-room, wh-why would I t-tell you!?_

Nicholas: **I agree!**

* * *

"It doesn't make sense. Nobody was in Gabriel's room to plant the evidence, but Gabriel wouldn't either. It'd lead right back to him, and **he wouldn't have told us about it in the first place!**" Nicholas defends Gabriel.

"Maybe he wants ya t' say that!" Tennoyama retorts, leaning forward on her stand. "He's the damned Ultimate Engineer! Ain't no one else here who can build better than him!"

_That's... not right, is it? Who else could have built such a thing?_

* * *

**ANSWER**

_Choose the correct answer._

1\. Hikari Tennoyama

2\. **Kinzoku Mitsuko**

3: Monokuma

4: Nicholas White

Nicholas: **Got it.**

* * *

Nicholas' eyes go toward Kinzoku. _Wait a minute..._

His memories would drift back to the morning before. Breakfast. Most of the students were present, and introductions were made. And if he remembers correctly...

"Kinzoku. What is your Ultimate, again?" Nicholas asks.

"...why is that important?" she asks, with a noticeable pause before speaking.

"Just tell us." Nicholas says, calmly.

"I'm... **the Ultimate Programmer.**" Kinzoku replies.

"That's awfully familiar..." Seymour furrows his eyebrows. "You the new Chihiro Fujisaki, or something?"

"The new who?" Kinzoku blinks.

"Chihiro Fujisaki. 78th class of Hope's Peak Academy. She's the Ultimate Programmer, is she not...?" Seymour trails off.

Kinzoku goes quiet.

"I remember you saying otherwise yesterday, too." Nicholas says.

* * *

**FLASHBACK**

_The day before_

"...and I'm the Ultimate Composer."

It's breakfast time. Many of the students were eating at the food set up for them by Monokuma, and they were going through introductions. Shiori had just finished hers, and all eyes went on the girl sitting next to her.

"My turn?" she rolled her eyes. "I'm Kinzoku. Yeah, I'm in a wheelchair, don't really want to talk about it."

"What's your Ultimate?" Nicholas, sitting next to Seymour, asked.

"**I'm the Ultimate Roboticist, I guess.**"

* * *

Apparently Monokuma knew where Nicholas was going with this, as the camera feed of the morning before was emitted out of his ElectroID for everyone to see. A few 'ohh's and 'ahh's were made, while Kinzoku remained silent.

"Hey, we didn't even go through all the evidence yet," Kinzoku grumbles, "Can we not with the accusations so quickly?"

"Gotta admit Kinzoku, if we go through the rest of the evidence, it only points toward _you._" Daiki says, looking down at his evidence.

"You even lied about your talent..." William adds.

"Huhuhu, you guys sound like you're having so much fun without me..."

An odd, yet familiar voice suddenly cuts through the debate. Durion, who had kept quiet for the past little while, was the next to speak. He reached into his dark blue jacket, pulling out a _teddy bear,_ and leaving it on his stand as he takes off said jacket and ties it around his waist.

"Heeey... Durion? Is that a teddy bear?" Nicholas asks, confusion taking over. His eyes dart between Durion's bear and Monokuma.

Durion tilts his head. "Who's Durion?"

_Oh, what the hell is this crap now?_

"Kidding! I know who that is!" Durion exclaims, before grabbing his bear. "Huhu, they actually bought it, didn't they Teddy? Yes they did..."

"What the hell's wrong with you all of a sudden?" Nicholas asks, bluntly.

"Nothing." Durion replies.

Durion's entire... _being_ changed, suddenly. His speech was much lighter and bubbly, rather than the usual quiet and monotone. His mannerisms had the same evolution, overall becoming more carefree. It's as if he were someone else entirely.

"Have I introduced myself yet?" Durion asks.

"You're Durion." Nicholas replies. "...right?"

"_Eeeengh!_" Durion makes the sound of a buzzer when you get the wrong answer on a game show. "I'm not Durion..."

"I'm Nori. Nori Pazuru, and I'm the Ultimate... er, what was it? Teddy, do you remember? Wait- I got it, I'm the Ultimate Puzzle Solver!"

**-NORI PAZURU-**

**ULTIMATE PUZZLE SOLVER**

_At one point, this was Durion. But no longer, supposedly. He now claims he is Nori Pazuru, the Ultimate Puzzle Solver. His overall body language changed from the neutral, strong-silent type to a more bubbly, optimistic one. Even his voice had a change. Nori owns a bear he appears to call Teddy, and talks to it. Finally, he wears his jacket around his waist, instead._

"So I've been listening in for the past little while," Nori says, putting his pinky in his ear and scratching. "Sounds like we got a murder case, hm?"

William stares at Nori in shock and surprise. "...I, yeah, it's a murder case."

"Who died?"

"His name was, uh, Hibiki..."

"Right. You know who did it yet?"

"No."

"Oh my goodness." Nori says, mouth agape. He looks to his bear. "Are you hearing this, Teddy? They didn't figure it out yet. The most _obvious_ case of all time and they don't even have a clue!"

"I think I have somewhat of a clue..." Seymour protests.

"Sure ya do." Nori rolls his eyes. "Look, can I just get you guys on the right track? Seriously, this is upsetting me."

"Let's hear it, Nori." Nicholas says, a bit hesitantly.

"See that girl in the wheelchair over there?" Nori says, pointing at Kinzoku. "She did it."

"What?" Nicholas didn't quite catch that.

"Heeeer. Seriously, it says her Ultimate title right there. You shoulda figured it out as soon as you saw it!" Nori replies.

"So, you're saying..." Nicholas starts, hoping for Nori to finish the sentence.

"Yes..." Nori nods, staring the girl in the eyes. "**'Twas Kinzoku Mitsuko, the Ultimate Roboticist who did poor ol' Hibiki in!**"

* * *

"Well, this is an interesting turn of events..."

"An alternate personality. Familiar, isn't it?"

"I... really hope Nori isn't anything like Genocide Jill..."

"Oh? Why not? It'd make it all much more amusing."

"Still in it for the amusement, aren't you, Byakuya?"

* * *

"Kagome, it's Ryan. We have a situation."

"Talk to me."

"First of all-the prison wasn't just where the families were being kept. It was the location for a Mutual Killing game."

"Shit. What makes you say that?"

"I'm standing in a trial room right now... it's one of those real tall ones, like the 78th's class. But that's not why I'm calling."

"Lemme guess. I only have the choice between the bad news and the bad news right now."

"Yeah, there's definitely no good. There's a message on one of the walls here, takes up the whole thing. It's in blood, and it says 'catch me if you can', signed 'The Storyteller'."

"...The Storyteller's involved in this?"

"Yeah. It's Arata. He's back."

"_Fuck._"

* * *

Logan's eyes slowly open. He'd been out for who knows how long, but when his eyes opened, he didn't expect to see what he was seeing. It was a sky above and streets in front of him. He was bound by handcuffs and rope around his legs, lying on the asphalt road. Around him were the other kidnap victims.

"Greetings, everyone!" Out of the corner of his eye, out comes The Storyteller. He walks in front of the group, hands out to his sides. Following him is a familiar face. Suzuki Mihane. Another mastermind. "How are you guys? C'mon, tell me!"

"Fuck you," Logan spits.

"Aw, how rude." The Storyteller says. You couldn't see it, but you could practically hear him frown. "Anyway, I have some news for you."

"What is it...?" a weak voice asks.

"You're free! Kinda. From the prison anyway. That was the deal, you'd be freed from _there._ You aren't _entirely_ free yet though. Sorry." The Storyteller answers, making hand motions to further his point.

"Get on with it." Logan growls.

"Yeesh. Well, it's time for part two of your captivity!" The Storyteller explains.

"Welcome to Las Despair City! I hope you're all ready to join the ranks of Ultimate Despair, because your training begins _now!_"

* * *

[A/N: Ooooo part one of the trial has happened. I was like a thousand or two words in before the trial actually started whoops. Next part will most likely be the last of the trial, then I guess some free times or something I dunno. I'll figure that out later. Also, apologies if update gaps become longer, I have finals and such soon. Thankfully most of it is in class stuff but y'know. Time for reviews.

ApexUtopia: I'M SORRY. The next chapter will be 100% Ryoko I swear. Hope you enjoyed the format and all though, I did some experimenting so let me know if it doesn't look right.

PSISomething: Honestly? The gaps are just way too long so I kind of wanted to rush into the trial. I will give you one hint about the ending: all hell's gonna break loose. Do with that what you will.

Shadedlyht: RIP HIBIKI. Again, yeah, I wanted to rush a little bit. Also someone's totally gonna get an axe and just start cutting down doors all The Shining style because of that rule. And tbh this was kind of simple anyway, so I guess there'd be little evidence. Dw next time like 10 people will die. :D

FireDusk: William, eh? Well we still have one more part to go, let's see what happens.

Saiynt: Next investigation will be 50 chapters. Is that long enough for you? Hmmm? Hmmmmmmm? And shit, I need to write Bert more too. Dammit. Okay, 50% Ryoko and 50% Bert for next chapter. Also like yeah you can say ami like that but at least say bye in French too like god

dashunterman: There will be worse. Honestly by the time next death comes around this fic might actually need to go to an M rating... I really wanna write some seriously detailed gory ass stuff like. That'd be fun.

"The silver blade was flushed into the flesh of his throat, immediately spurting out blood like a fountain. It made an oddly satisfying, squishy sound. The inside of his throat was left with nothing more than tethered remains, some bits of red meat sticking together by a thread. Pained chokes escaped his mouth as he fell to the ground..."

yeees... Alright, that was weird I'm sorry. But yeah it could (and probably will) get worse. Be prepared, this is Dangan Ronpa, I don't wanna hear anybody being offended. No offense to y'all but this is what you're getting into man.

And that's about it. Trial will finish up at some point in time maybe. I feel like I'm forgetting something though ._. Probably. I'll fix it eventually.


	8. Class Trial 1 Part 2

[A/N: blood haha]

* * *

"**'Twas Kinzoku Mitsuko, the Ultimate Roboticist, who did poor ol' Hibiki in!**"

_Well... alright, let's see what Dur- Nori has to say for himself._

* * *

**NONSTOP DEBATE**

_Weak points are in italics. __**Break points are in bold and italics. **__Agree break points are in italics and underlined._

EVIDENCE: **Blood, Autopsy Report, Hibiki's Door, Garbage, Springs**

Nori: _Kinzoku killed Hibiki. Duh._

Nori: Using some crap she found from the hardware store, Kinzoku did what she does best, and made an RC robot of death!

Nori: She needed to see what she was doing, _so she set up a camera and attenna to get the feed back to her. It wasn't just so she could control it, of course._

Nori: _She drove it under the door's gap,_ _and shot a spring-loaded knife into Hibiki._

Nori: After cleaning the robot of blood and taking it apart, _**Kinzoku must've entered Gabriel's room to dispose of it**__-pin it on the only other person who might know how to build such a thing._

Gabriel: B-but, _nobody came in my room! It was locked the whole time!_

Nicholas: How do you know that...?

Gabriel: Well... it happened around 5:00AM, right? _I was up then... I was up at 4:00 and I-I didn't get back to sleep at all..._

* * *

Nicholas reads over the Nonstop Debate. Something doesn't make any sense here. He could believe Nori's theory, but then there was Gabriel, claiming nobody came into his room to dispose of the robot. So how could the robot have been in his room? Either way, there was clearly a contradiction here.

* * *

Nicholas: **I'm afraid that's wrong!**

Evidence Used: **Gabriel's Testimony **[_I was up then... I was up at 4:00 and I-I didn't get back to sleep at all..._]

* * *

"Gabriel says he was up for the entire duration of the murder." Nicholas says, "**If someone came in his room to plant the evidence, he would've known.**"

"You sure are putting a lot of trust in him," Nori says, shrugging. "**For all **_**we**_** know, he could be lying to save someone.**"

"Well, that'd be pretty dumb." It's Monokuma who cuts in, suddenly. "Accomplices get nothing out of the murder! They die too! Then again, it is Gabriel we're talking about..."

"He's not lying." Ryoko says with confidence.

"_Thank_ you..." Gabriel mumbles.

"The robot couldn't have just teleported, so how'd it get in there...?" Nicholas says, asking the million dollar question.

* * *

**HANGMAN'S GAMBIT**

_Find the word/clue to further the trial._

SELF-D_/_/_/RUC/_/

**E**

F

O

P

SELF-DE/_/_/RUC_/

Q

**T**

M

N

SELF-DE/_/TRUCT

W

R

E

**S**

**SELF-DESTRUCT**

Nicholas: **This is it!**

* * *

"Hey, here's a thought. **What if Kinzoku didn't take apart the robot herself?**" Nicholas asks. "Instead, it self-destructed?"

"What'd it do, explode?" Tennoyama asks, baffled.

"Uuh, that depends," Nicholas scratches his neck. "Gabriel, were all the pieces still intact?"

"Y-yeah!" Gabriel nods, "I-I could probably r-recreate it i-if I had the pieces..."

"So no, it didn't explode. It took itself apart." Nicholas claims.

"I-it wasn't bolted together or anything, **it wouldn't have been too hard to make it do that.**" Gabriel agrees.

"Right. **So nobody entered his room. The robot was driven underneath Gabriel's door, and...**" Nicholas says, trailing off.

"**...and somehow got into the trash can.**"Kinzoku finished, glaring at Nicholas. "You didn't answer that one yet, did you?"

_Shit, that's right... how did it get into the garbage?_

"We're in the homestretch now." Annie suddenly says, turning to Nicholas. "I think Gabriel said it earlier..."

"Said what?" Nicholas asks, turning to look back at her.

"**The answer.**" Annie replies. "This is the last piece to figuring out exactly what happened last night. And we know how to answer it."

_I can answer it... but how? If it really went into Gabriel's room and self-destructed, it would've just ended up on the floor! And Gabriel would've made it clear he put it in the garbage if he did. Yet no one entered his room._

_Ooh, my head hurts._

* * *

**QUOTE**

_Somebody said an important quote earlier in the trial. What was it?_

1\. "Then Gabriel put the metal there! There was no one else who could have!" - Tennoyama

2\. "If I killed him, and planted evidence in my room, why would I tell you!?" - Gabriel

3\. "...no one but Hibiki was in his room to begin with!" - Seymour

**4\. "The wheels were kind of sticky."** **\- Gabriel**

Nicholas: **This is it!**

* * *

After taking a moment to scroll through the log of debate, Nicholas found Gabriel's testimony on the wheels. He sends it into the middle of the circle as a hologram.

"Gabriel. When you said this, what did you mean?" Nicholas asks, looking the Engineer in the eye.

"U-uh... well, I mean what I said... the wheels were sticky, I guess." Gabriel replies.

"Then the events that transpired last night have been pieced together." Annie says, smiling.

"Let's hear it." Nicholas says.

"Somebody used materials from the hardware shop to build a remote-control robot. They drove it to Hibiki's room underneath the door's gap, and shot a knife into him. After that, they drove back outside, where the culprit cleaned it thoroughly with napkins, disposing of them in the pot downstairs. Now they went to Gabriel's room, and... Nicholas, I'm sure you can finish it." Annie begins explaining, looking to Nicholas.

_Alright, let's do it._

* * *

**ANSWER**

_Choose the correct answer._

1\. The robot self-destructed.

2\. **Using the wheels' stickiness, the robot drove up the side of the trash can, and self-destructed inside.**

3\. Gabriel took it apart and threw it out.

4\. It exploded.

Nicholas: **This is it.**

* * *

"...and that was the end of it."

Nicholas finishes the explanation. Placing his hands on his stand, he looks around at everyone's faces. Nobody was calm. Everybody was sweating bullets. And Nicholas' eyes turn to Kinzoku.

"So. You figured out what happened. **Now what's your plan?**" Kinzoku asks.

"Find a way to pin it on the most obvious culprit, of course." Nicholas smirks.

_There's just one more piece of evidence to look at._

* * *

**PRESENT**

_Present the correct evidence._

1\. Autopsy Report

2\. Blood

3\. Mattress

**4\. Shelf**

5\. Springs

6\. Napkins

7\. Hibiki's Door

8\. Garbage

Nicholas: **Take that!**

* * *

"The shelf in the hardware store is the final piece to this puzzle!" Nicholas slams his hands on the stand.

"Ooh, here we go!" Nori grins.

"The question here is, **why did the shelf fall?**" Nicholas asks, determined. "There were **no signs of a struggle. Nothing happened in the hardware shop.**"

"Either it **fell on accident,** or **someone deliberately wanted it to fall.**" Seymour comments.

"And there's one answer to both of those questions." Nicholas adds.

"What is that answer, then!?" Kinzoku practically _growls._

**"It's the last piece of evidence. There's all but one more thing to put you down for the count!"**

"..." Saying nothing, Kinzoku's eye twitches.

* * *

**PANIC TALK ACTION**

_It's time to end this trial. Destroy your enemy's line of defense and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're the culprit._

**[+] [+] KINZOKU MITSUKO [+] [+]**

**-x-**

**-x-**

**-x-**

"Just because I'm the Roboticist, you think I did it? Really?"

_I have the evidence, too._

**SHIELD BREAK**

**[+] [+] [+]  
**

**-x-**

**-x-**

**-x-**

"For all you know, Gabriel could have killed Hibiki and frame himself. It'd make you think it was someone else!"

_Why do I trust Gabriel more than you?_

**SHIELD BREAK**

**[+] [+]**

**-x-**

**-x-**

**-x-**

"How do you even know a robot was used? There's no definite proof!"

_There's enough._

**SHIELD FRACTURE**

**[+] [-**

**-x-**

**-x-**

**-x-**

"Did you even consider anyone else!? What about that Seymour you're always talking with!?"

_I didn't need to consider everyone when the true culprit was so obvious._

**SHIELD FRACTURE**

**[+]**

**-x-**

**-x-**

**-x-**

**"**Tch..."

_I'll get you for this. As an officer of the law..._

**-x-**

**-x-**

**-x-**

"What is it, Nicholas? What makes you so sure it's me? Why? What'd I do?"

_You thought you were sneaky, didn't you? Well, I'm afraid not._

**SHIELD FRACTURE**

**[-**

**-x-**

**-x-**

**-x-**

"It wasn't me..."

_I'm sorry, Kinzoku._

**SHIELD BREAK**

**"Just leave me alone, I didn't do it!"**

* * *

**KNOCKED! OVER! THE! SHELF!**

Nicholas: **End of the line!**

* * *

Nicholas promptly presents the shelf evidence. "Look. The fourth shelf is empty. Clearly, someone wanted to get something off of it. But now, the fourth shelf was a bit high up. **This means if somebody short, or someone who were **_**handicapped**_** wanted to get up there...**"

"**They'd have to take the whole shelf down!**" Nori finishes for Nicholas. The two share a knowing grin, as if to silently say to one another, 'we got her'.

"A short person might be able to climb. Maybe. But a handicapped person would surely have trouble getting anything off the fourth shelf. **If the shelf was on the floor, however? No troubles there!**"

"Using my own fucking wheelchair against me, now?" Kinzoku asks, entire body twitching in anger. "Is that how this is going to go!?"

"Just admit it already, Kinzoku!" Nicholas raises his voice, staring down at the girl.

"It's painfully obvious, you know?" Nori comments.

"Almost a bit too obvious..." Seymour mutters.

"I..." Kinzoku starts, but couldn't form a sentence.

* * *

Rina: **"Oh, just leave her alone for god's sake!"**

* * *

Nicholas is startled by a scream from his neighbor. Rina turns to him with tears in her bloodshot eyes, hands balled up in fists at her side.

"Look at what you're doing!" she shouts. "How could you seriously say it was poor Kinzoku!? It couldn't have been any of us!"

"Rina..." Nicholas looks at her sadly.

"It was Monokuma! Why would you think anything else!? Seriously, she built a robot and killed Hibiki with it!? Do you even _hear_ the things coming out of your mouth!?"

"Just convince her." Annie says quietly. "End this trial already."

_Sorry, Rina..._

* * *

**REBUTTAL SHOWDOWN**

_Fight to prove your point!_

EVIDENCE: **Shelf, Autopsy Report, Blood, Garbage**

FIGHT

Rina: Please, listen to me. -/- Whoever's controlling Monokuma is obviously talented with robots...

Rina: ...so if a robot was really used, -/- then it comes down to Kinzoku or Monokuma.

Rina: Now firstly, do you have faith in -/- your fellow students or your _captor?_

Rina: Secondly, what's stopping Monokuma from...

* * *

"Stop."

"Huh?" The game suddenly terminates and Rina's head swiftly turns to the voice that cut in.

It's Kinzoku.

"Just stop." Kinzoku says.

"Wh-why? I'm proving your innocence!" Rina protests.

"That would be pretty ignorant of you." Kinzoku replies.

"Ignorant...? Why this time?" Rina asks, puzzled. Suddenly it's as if a bomb dropped in her brain and her eyes are wide open. "Kinzoku, no! Don't tell me..."

"Nicholas... you know what happened. Tell them." Kinzoku says.

Nicholas nods solemnly. A wave of regret passes through him, but ultimately, it's what he must do.

* * *

**CLOSING ARGUMENT**

_The grand finale. Explain how it all went down._

**-CHAPTER 1-**

The hardware store was entered at approximately 4:30 AM last night. The culprit was looking for materials to build a remote control robot. Due to being handicapped, they couldn't reach the metal they needed, and thus knocked over the shelf with it. After taking what they needed, they then got a box of springs, presumably an actual remote controller, and returned to their room. From there, the robot was assembled.

**-CHAPTER 2-**

The culprit found there was a gap big enough for a small robot to fit through under each door, and this was used to their advantage. Using a camera and attenna, the feed was brought back to Kinzoku, as she drove inside Hibiki's room. The spring in the robot shot out a knife, making a cut in the mattress as it flew into his neck, splattering blood on the rest of the bed as Hibiki was no longer.

**-CHAPTER 3-**

After leaving, the robot left a bit of a blood trail. The culprit likely saw this got some napkins from the bathroom, going outside and quickly cleaning it. They went downstairs to dispose of the napkins in the potted plant, and returned upstairs. Glue of some sort was then applied to the wheels, and the robot was driven into Gabriel's room. It drove up the side of the trash can, and once it was inside, took itself apart, making it seem like Gabriel threw away the robot.

Nicholas: **And the only one who could've pulled it off... was you! Kinzoku Mitsuko, you killed Hibiki Yukata!**

* * *

...

"I apologize."

"I couldn't just let Monokuma do this to my father."

"He's the only family I have anymore. My mother's gone. We... we were in a car accident... I lost my legs. She lost her life."

Kinzoku goes silent. She was the culprit. The killer of Hibiki Yukata has been found.

Nicholas expected to feel closure.

But where he was to feel closure, he felt despair.

"He's the one who got me into robotics in the first place." Kinzoku mutters.

"I'm sorry." Nicholas says the only thing he could say.

"B-but... that motive couldn't have been real..." Rina says, scared. "Right?"

"How do you know that?" Kinzoku asks.

"I don't..."

"Neither do I. I couldn't have taken that risk."

"Y'still shouldn'ta done it. Murder is murder..." Tennoyama says, lips curving down into a frown.

"I couldn't have taken that risk." Kinzoku simply repeats herself.

"Blah, blah, blah... hey, it's time to vote." Monokuma then speaks up, studying his paw in boredom.

With that, the screens on the ElectroIDs change from the evidence to a character select screen straight out of a fighting game from the eighties. Except each character were students from the group. Each one was in color, except for the one showing Hibiki's face. Black and white with a pink 'x' through it.

_Vote for the killer..._

A few moments pass. Everyone makes their selection. The screen is replaced by Kinzoku's face, with the same color scheme as Hibiki. Black, white, and a pink 'x'.

They're sending the girl to her death.

"Monokuma... you sure you want to do this?" Nicholas asks, hesitantly. "Please, there's other ways... it doesn't need to go down like this."

"How else is it supposed to? You're gonna give me some money? Honey, that's not even what I want." Monokuma deadpans.

"What _do_ you want!?" Nicholas asks, finding himself suddenly raising his voice. _What is the point of all this!?_

"Despair." Monokuma says simply.

_Th-that word..._

"Upupu..."

"H-Hold on a second. What happens now?" Kinzoku asks. A new emotion is heard in her voice-fear.

"You die." Monokuma says. "Y'all got it right! Kinzoku Mitsuko killed yer dear Hibiki! Now to follow the rules..."

"The _rules?_"

"If found guilty, the culprit will be killed..." Nicholas restates the rule. "No. Please. We can't have another death!"

"Oh damn. Well, at least we know it's Monokuma this time." Nori frowns.

"You're gonna kill her!?" Hikaru yells, staring at Monokuma with her mouth agape in shock. "Hey, she betrayed all of us, but that's too far!"

"I agree, this is far too much!" Ryoko protests as well. She could only hope the pleading look in her single eye was enough to make Monokuma change his mind.

"Hikaru just said it. She betrayed all of us." Daiki speaks up. "Kinzoku successfully risked all of our lives, and planned on having us all dead just for her father. That's what the selfish bitch wanted."

"Hey!" Rina exclaims sharply. "Who the hell are you to call her a selfish bitch!? What'd you do when you saw the motive, laugh!? _Do you not have a family!?_"

Annie looks at Rina from two stands over with a solemn eye. She whispers, "He certainly didn't laugh. Trust me."

Rina goes quiet.

"Daiki's right... but... please, I- I don't want to die!" Kinzoku yells in fear, gripping the arms of her wheelchair tightly.

"Too bad!" Monokuma exclaims, laughing madly.

* * *

**A slot machine appears in a hologram center of the trial circle. On it are faces of each of the seventeen students. The lever is pulled...**

**...**

**Slot one is Kinzoku.**

**...**

**Slot two is Kinzoku.**

**...**

**Slot three is Kinzoku.**

**KINZOKU MITSUKO HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY.**

**COMMENCING EXECUTION.**

* * *

Suddenly, part of the floor behind Nicholas opens up. A staircase is revealed. _What the hell...?_

He doesn't have time to think about it before a wheelchair is unexpectedly whipped through the air.

A silver chain had jumped out of the staircase and wrapped itself around Kinzoku's neck. It pulled back down, wheelchair and all, pulling her down into the dark abyss of the trap door. Gasps and screams ring out from the crowd, as they look to Monokuma for answers. Only to find that he's gone.

Acting on pure adrenaline and fear, Nicholas forces his shaking legs to rush downstairs. The other fourteen present students quickly follow.

They enter a dark room with a huge glass wall. Through the glass they can see a lighter, white, wide open room with a few crates and boxes littered around. Kinzoku sits in her wheelchair, in the center of the room. But now, she's stuck in it, duct tape keeping her in place. There's also a strip of tape covering her mouth. She struggles to move and get the tape off, but nothing happens. The students pound against the glass and scream, but there's no way in.

There's no helping her now.

Startling the students back into watching Kinzoku, some light guitar chords begin to play. Music...? This was going to get ugly.

* * *

**EXECUTION OF KINZOKU MITSUKO**

**"STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU"**

**MUSIC (YOUTUBE): /watch?v=DohRa9lsx0Q**

* * *

Kinzoku's chair was turned around to face the students. Monokuma walks in. For a moment, all he does is dance in spot to the song. It's currently all instrumental, happy-sounding acoustic guitar being the only thing they could hear. Clapping sets in. Monokuma continues his dance as the vocals begin.

_"Well I don't know why I came here tonight..."_

Monokuma reaches behind him. In some sort of compartment in his back, he pulls out a barber-style razor.

_"...I got the feelin' that somethin' ain't right."_

The bear is at Kinzoku's side, and shuffles backwards until he gets to her. He's still dancing.

_"I'm so scared, in case I fall off my chair..."_

He turns to Kinzoku. In one swift movement, he suddenly slashes at Kinzoku's face with the razor, leaving a bleeding gash on her forehead-just above the eyebrow. She promptly yells out in pain. Her eyes are glued closed, every muscle in her face tense.

_"...and I'm wonderin' how I'll get down the stairs."_

Monokuma swipes again, getting Kinzoku above the other eyebrow. Blood spills out of the freshly made wound like a fountain. Another cut, this time on the cheek.

_"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right-"_

Another cut. Other cheek.

_"-here I am, stuck in the middle with you."_

Monokuma's attack doesn't stop. He keeps swiping and slashing, making quick, but deep cuts in Kinzoku's face. One such cut started in the middle of her cheek, and went down and out through her mouth, as so to make a huge smile.

_"Yes I'm, stuck in the middle with you. And I'm wonderin' what it is I should do."_

Monokuma takes a break, going back to his dance routine. It was much less cute now, with the bear soaked in pink blood, dancing in the blood of his victim. Kinzoku was hyperventilating as blood, sweat and tears literally poured down her face like a waterfall, grinding her teeth together as hard as she possibly could. Kinzoku struggled to get free of the tape binding her arms, but to no avail.

_"It's so hard to keep this smile from my face, losin' control yeah I'm all over the place."_

Monokuma suddenly turns to Kinzoku and brings the blade to her right ear. Raising it high in the air, he brings it down, and begins _sawing the ear off._ Kinzoku's screams and shouts made the pain of it all quite clear. He keeps cutting, cutting, cutting...

_"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right-here I am, stuck in the middle with you."_

It doesn't take very long for the ear to come clean off. Monokuma holds it in his hand. "Upupu. Can y'hear me?" he holds the ear to his mouth, speaking into it as if Kinzoku could still hear it. He drops it on the ground like garbage.

_"Well you started out with nothing, and you're proud that you're a self made man..."_

The attacks relentlessly continue. He went down, now. A few nicks on the neck. A few cuts on the arms. Not as painful as the face, at least.

_"And your friends they all come crawlin', slap you on the back and say, please..."_

Kinzoku tried even harder to fight Monokuma off, and she managed to throw him back for a moment. She pulled with all her strength in this moment to rip her arms out of the tape, but it just didn't work. Nothing.

_"Please..."_

The song slowed down. Time for a break it seemed. Monokuma's eyes seemed crazed, but he didn't attack anymore for a bit. He reached into the compartment on his back, finding a cloth and wiping the razor of the blood left on it.

And then he... puts it away?

The rest of the song plays out as Monokuma leaves through the door on the other end of the room.

Is that it?

Is that the end of this godforsaken _execution?_

Kinzoku looks ahead of her, through the glass to see her classmates. They pounded against the glass as hard as they could, working together to hit it all at once, but they were only sent back. There were no other entrances or ways into the room.

Kinzoku attempted to mouth a few words to them, but the tape prevented her mouth from moving. Her last words wouldn't be known.

A few minutes later, her eyes close.

...

* * *

**The Trial of Hibiki Yukata - End**

**SURVIVORS: 15/17**

* * *

In the communications room back at Camp Hope, dozens of members watched the giant screen in silence.

"Good god..." Kagome mutters through the cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

"There's just no stopping this shit, is there?" Hitaka asks quietly, suddenly slamming his fist down on the desk in front of him. "Fuck."

"I... what do we do now?" Takeo asks.

"Move on, preferably. I'll bet you good money that a hundred other people got executed even _worse_ just now." Taichi says.

"Actually, you're gonna go back to work." Kagome says coldly, turning to Taichi. "Do what you're good for. There's new cameras. Figure out where they are. _Now._"

"New cameras? The fuck?" Taichi raises a brow.

"They unlocked the next area. That means the next set of cameras are probably online-_go._" Kagome orders.

"Sure. But lemme guess, we aren't any closer on The Executioner, are we? Bet we aren't any closer on The Storyteller either." Taichi crosses his arms.

"Wrong." Kagome says bluntly.

"What?" Taichi asks, surprised.

"One of those students is your beloved Executioner." Kagome replies, taking a drag of his cigarette as he nods in the direction of the screen.

"Wait, what?" It's Hitaka's turn to be surprised. "How do you know that?"

"I was the Ultimate Private Eye, I know the Ultimate Detective, and the brother of my two Ultimate cop friends was a detective. I can put two and two together." Kagome scoffs.

"Which one is it?" Hitaka asked.

"I'll bet you it's her."

"...I'll get working on those cameras."

* * *

"Commander Naegi. I have the location."

At another military base, there were miles more of progress. A suited man in around his mid-twenties with spiky brown hair jogged over to a technician who called him over.

"Good work. You sure?" Naegi asks. He looks at the computer where the technician sat at, seeing a map of a city in Japan.

"Without a doubt, sir."

"Alright." Naegi nods, patting the techie on the shoulder before jogging off, turning on his earpiece as he leaves the room.

"Captain, this is Commander Naegi." he says, walking through the halls.

"_krrrsch_-What can I do for you, Naegi?" the Captain replies, with a bit of static.

"Turn this boat around. I know where the game is." Naegi answers.

"_krrsch-_Already? Where is it?" the Captain asks, bewilderment present in his tone.

"It's Las Despair City. Get in touch with some other battleships, I want as many soldiers in there as I can get, okay?" Naegi says.

"Got it."

* * *

[A/N: And there we go! The first trial is complete! To be honest, I'm not entirely happy with the murder, but... well, maybe the next one will be better. I am quite happy with the execution though. Even though Kinzoku's dead whoops. Rest in peace Kinzoku. ;-;

ApexUtopia: I should make some kind of bloopers chapter where he actually picks that. And nah, I was literally just thinking one day a while ago "hey, I don't have any insane characters" and I crapped out The Storyteller. I agree though, really good game. I'm actually in a bit of a writing mood nowadays, I just had a pretty bad writer's block, so chapters hopefully shouldn't be a month apart anymore. Thanks!

ShadedLyht: Dw, there won't be any more obvious culprits again (hopefully). And really? I actually felt like I've been making Nicholas a bit of a mary sue, but thanks! Trying not to do any of that. There'll be hella things about Las Despair City soon enough. Thank youuu

dashunterman: Well, that happened. Hope you enjoyed!


	9. Chapter 6: Reconnaissance

_Hello, Nicholas. You don't know me. I plan to keep it that way. I'm afraid if you knew anything you'd know too much and I'd have to put you down. Yes; I know about your brothers. The White family. Very strong people, all part of Tokyo's very own Special Unit. You, the brains back at HQ. Logan, the infantry. Ryan, the detective who cleaned it all up. Don't try threatening me with the law, because I'm afraid that's just not an option. As far as you're concerned, I'm a ghost._

_Despite everything I just said, I have information for you, Nicholas. A storm is coming. A big one. It's called Ultimate Despair. They're calling what's about to happen World War 3. There'll be no coming back from this one. It'll be chaos. Something like a post-apocalyptic world with sadistic 'games' called Mutual Killings. Something like a tournament, you see. That's not important right now however._

_What's important is that you come to chat with one of our operatives, Hitaka Yuushi. I want you to prevent this from happening. The government won't believe me, there's no reason I should even try. You, however. You're destined for greatness. The Ultimate Commander. That's who you'll be one day. It all starts with Hope's Peak Academy, actually._

_Hitaka will tell you more, should you go find him at Haneda Airport on the 25th of March. But I've decided I will give you a few pieces of information. Right here, right now._

_Junko Enoshima. Mukuro Ikusaba. Storyteller. Executioner. The Tragedy. And finally, Hope's Peak's very own Hope Cultivation Project. Talk to a guy by the name Hinata Hajime when you get to Hope's Peak for me, yeah? Or is his name Izuru Kamakura? Who knows._

_Please do take this seriously. I beg you. If you can stop the oncoming storm, then we'll all be saved._

_\- A future member of Faith_

* * *

"Hey, Logan. Look at this weird email I got. [Sent at 8:43PM. 1 photo attached]

"Who sent it?" [Sent at 8:45PM.]

"Dunno. All I got to work with is an email address full of gibberish." [Sent at 8:46PM.]

"Trace the IP?" [Sent at 8:46PM.]

"Tried it." [Sent at 8:46PM.]

"Maybe we should get Ryan on this... I don't care how secretive this guy needs to be, he already knows too much about us." [Sent at 8:47PM.]

"Tracking down this guy's gonna be hard enough as is, how the hell are we gonna find Ryan?" [Sent at 8:47PM.]

"I heard Kagome's still in contact with him." [Sent at 8:47PM.]

"Give him a call. I don't like this." [Sent at 8:47PM.]

"Yeah. You think any of it's real?" [Sent at 8:48PM.]

"I want to call it bullshit, but... I just can't shake this feeling." [Sent at 8:48PM.]

* * *

_Present day_

"...alright, here we go, entry number one. Day three of captivity. My name is Nicholas White, and I've been kidnapped."

It's a rainy afternoon. A bus took the surviving students back to city on a quiet bus ride. Most, if not all students returned to their rooms. What else were they supposed to do now? After seeing _that?_ No one was going to eat any time soon, that's for sure.

"I don't know what's going on."

Nicholas White sat at his desk, propping his ElectroID up against the wall and recording himself. He rubbed his pained temples, as he records his first journal entry in his quiet room, voice reflecting that volume and somber tone.

"I just investigated a murder and put the killer to justi-... no, that wasn't justice, that was a _punishment, _in the past four hours. I'm an officer at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, but this wasn't some kind of job or case at all."

His hands went down to rub his face. _God..._

"My class at Hope's Peak Academy have been kidnapped... we're in some kind of abandoned _city_ or... I don't know."

Nicholas takes a moment to look to his left, outside the rain-covered window. Under the grey sky across from his room, was the damned hardware store. His eyes slowly go back to facing his camera.

"There's only one way out of here, and that's to kill another student in cold fucking blood and get away with it."

* * *

"The first murder just happened, too."

Seymour set his camera on his bed, pacing around the room. He'd been up to the exact same thing Nicholas was, making a recorded journal entry.

"Poor soul Kinzoku, girl in a wheelchair, killed innocent Hibiki with a spring-loaded robot. And now, she's dead too."

* * *

"But it's not her fault. Monokuma, our captor, gave us an offer we couldn't refuse." Nicholas says, going silent for a moment as he remembered Ryoko's words the night before. "He said he has our families captive as well, and they're suffering a worse fate than we are. In twenty-four hours... or now it'd be six, if there were no deaths, our families would be dead."

"He hasn't handled his side of the bargain yet. Hasn't proved our families are alive. I don't know where they are. I don't know where Logan is... my mom, my dad... hell, they might even have Ryan..."

Nicholas sighs, trailing off.

* * *

"It's clear there's more than meets the eye here." Seymour says, crossing his arms as he looks to the grey, carpeted floor below his feet. "Monokuma knows more than we do. I'm noticing gaps in my memory. Nicholas is getting 'flashbacks'. He's talking about despair, next thing we know Monokuma's talking about despair."

He suddenly looks up to face the camera. "I don't want to be suspicious of Nicholas, but... I don't know, something's not adding up."

* * *

"I've been remembering more, though." Nicholas nods to himself, in thought. "God knows how I forgot about it, but I got an email about a month or two ago. It was an anonymous tip, talking about this Ultimate Despair. It mentioned a few names. A Junko Enoshima... Mukuro Ikusaba... Hinata Hajime. Izuru Kamakura. I don't know who these people are. Or maybe I do, but I forgot."

"It's... too much. I don't know. My head's killing me, it does that whenever I think about this kind of thing. Too many mysteries, too many questions. Questions to be answered another day." Nicholas mutters, rubbing his head again.

"First priority right now is to just get the hell out of here. Hopefully, next time I update I won't be in this goddamned city. Nicholas White, signing out."

* * *

"I don't have enough evidence, of course... I'm not sure if I should even start a case in the first place, but I'll be wary." Seymour murmurs. "Shit."

It's his turn to rub his head in pain. He exhales, rubbing both eyes with his thumb and index.

"I've got a headache. I'll make another video soon." Seymour says, shutting off the camera.

* * *

Ryoko just couldn't go back inside the hotel. Flashbacks to just hours ago were still fresh in her mind. She wanted to go back to her room, but what if the _blood_ is still in that hallway? Hibiki's blood? It wasn't particularly something she wanted to see. Thankfully, she brought a book to keep herself entertained. The Poetess sat at the Monokuma fountain, reading said book under the overhang.

"Whatcha readin'?"

Her reading is interrupted by Daiki's voice. The owner of said voice approaches her, hands in the pockets of his thin, black sweatpants. He changed into a much more comfortable outfit, in simple black jogging pants and a grey hoodie. The head of a tattoo snake poked out from the end of his right sleeve. Ryoko was still somewhat dressed up, with a white blouse and black jeans.

"Just an old piece of mine." Ryoko replies, as Daiki comes and takes a seat next to her.

"You sure write a lot..." Daiki observes, looking at the thickness of the book.

"It is how I got into Hope's Peak." Ryoko smiles.

"Ultimate...?"

"Poetess."

"Right..."

"What brings you out here?" Ryoko then asks, after a silent pause.

Daiki shrugs. "Air."

"I see."

"What about you?" Daiki asks the question back.

"I'm afraid I can't go back into my room, at least not any time soon." Ryoko murmurs.

"Hibiki?" Daiki asks.

"Indeed." Ryoko nods.

"There's no trace left, if that's why you're worried." Daiki replies.

"Still... it just doesn't feel right." Ryoko frowns. Her saddened eyes look over to the hotel's glass doors, wondering if she should maybe just go in. But the first thing she sees through the doors is the potted plant where a certain piece of evidence was found, and her eyes dart right back to her book.

"Guess I have to agree with that."

After that, another moment of silence ensued. A slightly awkward one, at that. Daiki ended up reading with Ryoko.

"Did you look at the new area Monokuma gave us, yet?" Ryoko asks.

"Nope. You?" Daiki denies.

"Afraid not. Shall we go take a gander?" Ryoko offers.

"Uhh. Sure. Why not." Daiki answers, albeit a bit confusedly and not entirely as if he really wanted to.

Ryoko gets up, and is about to walk over to the bus parked in front of the hotel, but Daiki grabbed her arm.

"Huh?"

"Come. Don't ask when we got it, but there's a new button on the hotel's elevator, takes you to the parking lot. I already picked out a much nicer car for myself, it's got a seat for you too." Daiki says, gesturing for her to follow.

"Sounds good." Ryoko says, a slight smile decorating her face.

* * *

"Saint Monokuma's Hospital. He's calling himself a saint now?" Hoshiko comments, standing outside the building of the aforementioned name with two others.

"Ah, that's a sign of hope. A hospital. Clearly, our captor isn't quite as bad as we may have made him out to be." Bert says, grinning widely. Despite his words, they just didn't quite have the same innocent tone as before the events of that morning.

"I-I-I don't know about that..." Gabriel says, quietly. He whispers something else under his breath, with the only thing that was heard being 'Kinzoku'.

"What was that? Speak up, Gabe! What'd I tell you?" Bert says, giving Gabriel a firm but not hard slap on the back.

"S-sorry..."

The trio had been investigating the new area they were so graciously given by Monokuma. At least, that was the plan-they only just arrived, umbrella in Bert's hand to cover them from the rain. So far, it wasn't nearly as nice and well-furbised as the downtown district. This area was more of a lower-priced place, with less skyscraper type buildings. The biggest building was the hospital, which was only about five floors. Rather than buildings meant for recreational purposes such as the sports bar, it had more necessities, like said hospital. The bus they took passed by a grocery store, a library, a few government buildings such as the city hall, and some others. That was only what they've seen so far, however.

And so the three enter the hospital. They are greeted by a dark lobby, designs being mostly made of hardwood. Just a few feet in front of the doors was an empty receptionist desk. On both left and right sides were glass doors, but the hospital was pitch black beyond the doors.

"O-oh no." Hoshiko stutters, backing up. "H-Hey, we don't need to look around here, do we?" She was referring the darkness of the lobby, which started to freak her out.

"Don't worry about it!" Bert encourages, turning to Hoshiko. "We can do this!"

"Wh-what are we even going to find here...?" Gabriel asks.

"Nothing! Let's get out of here!" Hoshiko exclaims.

"Come on, Hoshiko! We'll be with you every step of the way!" Bert yells, putting his hands on Hoshiko's shoulders.

"O-okay, sure, but we can't even _see!_"

Bert pauses, staring at Hoshiko for a moment. Then to the ground. Then his eyes squint. "Oh. Oh dear. That's true, that is a problem."

"Guys..." Gabriel then turns on his ElectroID, pulling it out of his khakis' pocket. He uses the light to illuminate their immediate area.

"Oh? Yes! Yes, Gabriel!" Bert takes his hands off Hoshiko and points at Gabriel. "That is an _excellent_ idea! I never did figure out how to work those damned things yet, how'd you do that?"

"It's this button right here, Bert..."

"Wonderful! You have to remind me how to do that later. I'm not the greatest with technology. I'm half-blind, I can't see what I'm doing half the time!" Bert replies, exploding into laugher after.

"You're half-blind?" Hoshiko asks, who couldn't hold back a few giggles. She had to admit, the dark was pretty uncomfortable, but not as much with these two.

"Oh, I was born blind in my left eye. It's nothing to worry ab-_ow!_" Bert says, jokingly walking into a wall and hitting his head. Presumably, it wasn't hard and he was fine. Presumably.

Gabriel sighs. "Should we get going...?"

"Of course! Come, Gabriel! Come, Hoshiko! Onwards, _to battle!_" Bert cries out, before leaning forward and charging through the door on the left with gusto. The door is smashed open as Bert blindly runs into the darkness.

With the sinking feeling that this was going to be a long investigation, Gabriel and Hoshiko follow. Much slower, though. Gabriel shines his light onto Bert as he enters, and he finally realizes his surroundings.

"Oh my god... I can't believe this..." he says, bewildered with widened eyes.

"Bert, it's... it's a waiting room." Gabriel deadpans with a light sigh.

Surely enough, dozens of blue cushioned chairs were littered on a grey tiled floor. A vending machine full with soda, water, and assorted snacks was in the corner of the adjacent wall to the entrance. On the left were windows covered by curtains, and the right wall was split up into two glass walls, with a huge gap in between them. On top of the gap was a legend as to what was in the hallway through that gap.

"Oh. It certainly is, Gabriel." Bert agrees, looking around. He notices the vending machine. "Hey, anyone have any change?"

**"You don't need any!"**

"Woah there!" Bert shouts, getting into a defensive position as a familiar voice cuts in.

Monokuma shows up.

"Hey kids! You don't need change for the machines! Change doesn't even exist anymore!" Monokuma says, walking over in front of the machine. "But unfortunately, there's a power outage. I wonder why? If y'get the power on you can use the vending machine... for the low, low price of free!"

"Thank me later!" he says, walking out the same direction the three came in from.

"That was weird." Hoshiko says, confused.

"Agreed. We should figure out a way to get the power on." Bert states, looking over the machine. "Ooh, that soda looks so good right now."

"There's probably a breaker or something..." Gabriel says, in thought. "Let's keep moving."

And so, they soldier on.

The hallway outside went left and right, with the students on the leftmost part of the hallway. In the corner was a staircase going up. On the wall ahead of them were a few patient rooms, but they were locked. The east part of the hall also had a stairwell. In the middle however, it broke off into another hallway going straight, with a few more rooms. Upon passing through, there's an elevator straight at the end, a cafeteria on the left, and the emergency entrance on the right with a much bigger door. In the wide open room with the entrance were some chairs, reserved for people waiting for someone to come out of the emergency room. It was an absolute mess, with papers and garbage littering the floor. They had to navigate around a few empty stretchers, and they really hoped it was due to the darkness and they couldn't see properly, but they could've sworn there was blood on them. Finally, there was an extra long hallway with a few emergency rooms, ending in an exit and another staircase.

"Keep an eye out," Bert says cautiously as he takes the lead in the longer hallway. "This hallway is rather ominous."

"Yeah..." Hoshiko agrees, worriedly following.

"Mm." Gabriel grunts in agreement too.

Everything seemed all good, until they finally approached the end of the hallway. There was one more large surgery room.

Immediately noticeable is a terrible, yet unfortunately familiar stench.

"Umm, what's that smell?" Hoshiko asks, concerned. She looks around with furrowed eyebrows.

"I farted. Apologies." Bert jokes. "I kid. I'm afraid I don't know."

"I-I... I know that smell..." Gabriel whispers.

"Oh? Oi, what is it, Gabe?" Bert asks.

"That's blood." Gabriel answers, looking at Bert with a worried pair of eyes. "R-right...? You must remember..."

"Oh my." Bert mutters, blinking in surprise. "Now where is that coming from?"

"Oh no, th-this can't be..." Hoshiko's eyes widen.

They trace the source down to the last surgery room. Gabriel promptly shines his ElectroID's light on it, finding it stained with an infamous pink substance.

"Oh my god." Gabriel immediately shields his eyes.

Hoshiko lets out a scream and does the same, backing away.

Bert gasps. "Oh dear, could this be what I think it is?"

More likely than not, the floor had splatters of what must've been blood out to the opposite wall. They all instantly have lashbacks to seeing Hibiki's blood in the hotel hallway that morning.

"No, please... I'm not ready for another death..." Hoshiko pleads.

"Gabe? Come. We're going in." Bert then says, confidently.

Gabriel gulps. It takes a moment, but he reluctantly nods. The Engineer lights up the doors, as Bert pushes them open. The males slowly walk in. Hoshiko's left to watch the duo disappear into the darkness, now standing in the pitch black hallway. _Ooooh... we shouldn't split up... and I need to know what happened._ Curiosity eventually convinced Hoshiko to follow after.

The room itself isn't quite as different as the hallway. An adjustable surgery chair rests in the middle of the room, with multiple tools littered on it and around it. A table that must've once held the tools was knocked over. Finishing the overall state of unrest in the surgery room was splatters of hot pink blood all around. However, it was dry. It couldn't be told exactly what happened here, but clearly it was _something._

The only possible good thing that came out of the room was the fact there was no body. This meant it was either moved or there's no body to begin with, and the trio were hoping for the latter.

"Ooooooh. What do you guys think happened here?" Bert asks quietly, looking around.

"I don't know... th-the blood's old though..." Gabriel comments.

"What makes you say that?" Bert asks.

"J-Just... it's dry, and... y'know..." Gabriel trails off, nervously.

"Of course." Bert agrees, nodding enthusiastically.

"Do you think someone else...?" Hoshiko asks the question on everyone's minds.

"N-No. Blood is definitely too old." Gabriel denies, shaking his head.

"Did Monokuma put all this here then?" Hoshiko wonders.

"Possibly. But why? Why would he want to do that?" Bert crosses his arms, frowning.

"Hey-what's this?" Gabriel suddenly asks, holding something in his hands. The others look over, discovering the cover to a newspaper in his hands.

"Hundreds of Superiors found dead... Future Foundation to blame." Gabriel reads out the headline, squinting his eyes in confusion. He's illuminating the newspaper with his ElectroID, of course. "The rest is blacked out, no date, no article... there's a picture of some soldiers..."

The picture he speaks of show dozens upon dozens of seemingly homeless people sitting on a sidewalk, with even more soldiers armed with assault rifles standing above them. Most of the men wore white-and-grey camoflagued armor, but there were some especially important-looking ones in black suits and ties, sunglasses finishing the outfit. The buildings around them looked abandoned and in poor condition, with broken windows and cracked stone. In general the photo gave off a very abandoned feel, and the first few words that came to mind were 'martial law'.

"Hmm. Is that all?" Bert asks, coming up next to Gabriel and reading over his shoulder, Hoshiko doing the same.

"I-I think... there's no more pages, just the cover..." Gabriel says. He turns it around to check the back, and opens it to check the inside, but all of that is blacked out too.

"Monokuma certainly planted this." Bert murmurs. "Now just what could he be trying to get with this... what is a Superior?"

Gabriel says he doesn't know, and decides to take a few pictures of the room with his ElectroID, including the newspaper.

"We should go," Hoshiko bites her lip. "I don't like this room..."

It's mutually agreed, and the three move on.

* * *

Back at the hotel, Tennoyama and Rina were chatting amongst each other in the food court. The two sat at a table, and on it in front of Rina was a pencil and paper, half-finished drawing written down. Tennoyama had interrupted her drawing, but Rina would rather be talking to the mountain climber anyway.

"So basically, it all started out when I was wee ol' fourteen years old. Er, three years ago. My pops always used to tell me stories about the mountain climbing greats like Edmund Hillary, guy who first climbed Everest. I thought I may as well do it m'self and ended up climbin' my first mountain!" Tennoyama explained, talking about the story behind her Ultimate.

"Wow. Fourteen was only a year ago for me," Rina says sheepishly, scratching her neck as her eyes dart away for a moment. "Did you ever climb Everest?"

Tennoyama pauses. "...Not quite."

"I'm sorry... did something happen?" Rina asks.

"Indeed." Tennoyama answers, a sudden grave tone infiltrating her voice.

"What was it?"

"Mm. Not a pleasant topic, I'll be honest with ya. I wouldn't want to upset you, dear." Tennoyama replies.

"Dear...?" Rina raises a brow.

With that, two males suddenly walk in the food court, thus making the girls not the only ones there anymore. It was Nicholas and Seymour.

"Hey guys." Seymour waves to Tennoyama and Rina.

"Greetin's."

"Hello!"

The two approach the girls' table. "How are you two holding up?" Nicholas asks.

"Fine, I guess." Rina says.

"I miss 'em already. I'll be okay though." Tennoyama reassures in a quiet, solemn tone. "And how's about youse?"

"Could be better, that's for sure." Nicholas says, copying the tone.

"Well, trying to keep my spirits up." Seymour comments, "Can't let 'em fall."

"We need to be strong." Rina advises, giving a bit of a smile.

"Agreed." Nicholas nods.

The four chat back and forth a bit, before something suddenly hits Tennoyama. "Oi. Anyone been to the next area yet?"

Nobody said yes, to which Nicholas got the idea of changing that. "How about we go check it out?"

"Yeah!" Tennoyama pumps a fist in the air. "Adventure!"

Before long, Rina packs up her things and they're already on their way. They go through the hotel, and remember something peculiar about the elevator. There was a new button, was there not? It had a single 'P' on it, but no one knew what it could've stood for. Figuring they might as well see that while they're in the hotel, the next stop is the elevator.

The elevator starts going underground. "When do you think this was put in?" Nicholas asks, starting small talk while they wait.

"While we were at the trial, probably." Seymour suggests.

"Wasn't Monokuma with us, though?" Rina questions.

"Yeah, but you don't think the thing's controllin' itself, do ya? Obviously there's someone behind Monokuma who installed it." Tennoyama says, gesturing to the button.

"I guess... hey, where do you think we're going, anyway?" Rina then asks, a bit concerned. "We have no idea other than a 'P'."

"I dunno. Parking?" Nicholas shrugs. "Guess we're about to find out."

As if to mirror Nicholas' words, the doors open. Also mirroring his words, a large parking lot is revealed. There's easily at least a hundred cars, and according to the nearby staircase and ramp, another floor to this place. What was immediately noticeable however, was the grandiose status of the cars. It ranged from sports cars like Corvette to hyper cars like McLaren, from minivans to SUVs, even from dirt bikes to choppers. Any kind of street vehicle you could think of aside from buses à la Monokuma's public transport could be found. There were two ramps, one going up and onto the streets, and one going down even farther underground. The parking lot was rather warm and dry, not extremely pleasant.

Nicholas whistled, everyone walking together. "Logan would be having a field day if he were here right now."

"Logan?" Rina inquires.

"My brother. Take every masculine stereotype and put into one person, you get him." Nicholas says, grinning a bit. He remembers the day Logan got his first car, and despite it being nothing more than a simple coupe, he was practically jumping up and down in excitement.

"How boring." Tennoyama comments, dryly.

"He's a nice guy when you get to know him." Nicholas shrugs.

"Well, anyway... does anyone actually know how to drive?" Rina asks, looking around at all the cars.

"Hey, it can't be that hard! Gimme a minute behind the wheel and I'll figure somethin' out." Tennoyama cheers enthusastically, balling her hand into a fist in front of her.

"I approximate it'll take about ten seconds before you'd get us all killed." Seymour sighs. "Sorry. I dunno about lettin' you drive missy."

"Wh- you wanna fight about it, _mister?_" Tennoyama challenges with a shocked expression on her face. Next thing they knew, she was in front of Seymour in a boxing position. "C'mon! Put 'em up!"

"Oooh. Round one, go!" Nicholas announces, jokingly.

Seymour just... keeps on walking.

"Hey! Get back here!" Tennoyama shouts, chasing after him.

"Anyways... can you drive?" Rina asks Nicholas.

"I don't exactly have a license, but I did drive yesterday without any problems, so..." Nicholas answers.

_Except it wasn't raining nearly as bad then. Wait- didn't the forecast say today was going to be warm? And sunny? Great, now we have lying weather channels._

"Hey guys! Nicholas is driving!" Rina calls out.

"Except there's one implication-" Nicholas puts his finger up in protest, but is cut off.

"What!? Oh, fine! But I call shotgun!" Tennoyama yells in dismay, before turning her frown right upside down. As long as she gets shotgun anyway.

"Guys, one proble-"

"What car are we going to take?" Rina asks. "There's so many... um, these are for us, right?"

"See, that's what I'm try-"

"I don't see why they wouldn't be. Somethin' like a present from Monokuma for winning the trial, maybe." Seymour says.

"Sure, but-"

"Ooo, I like this one!" Tennoyama says, standing in front of a candy red convertible Ferrari. The roof was up. "Nick, let's drive this one-oh, are you trying to say something?"

"I have been trying to say something for the past couple minutes, yes." Nicholas sighs. "Who says we're gonna be able to just drive-"

He's cut off by Seymour opening the door to the Ferrari with ease. Seymour leans into the car for a moment, and in his hand was the keys to the car. A smirk on his face, he passes the keys to Nicholas.

"Oh." Nicholas blinks, catching the keys.

"Alright, road trip!" Tennoyama cheers, getting in the passenger seat.

"Woo!" Rina cheers as well, getting in the back.

Nicholas and Seymour share a look, and despite it lacking words it was enough to say 'we're in for a long ride'.

* * *

"And here we are. Welcome to the next part of Despair City."

Daiki and Ryoko crossed the bridge and finally entered the new area. The duo drove in a snow white Audi, which Daiki picked of course: it matched his hair quite nice.

"It's rather dark." Ryoko observes. "The streetlights downtown were on, why aren't these?"

"No power, probably." Daiki shrugs.

"Even inside the buildings... pitch black." Ryoko mutters.

"You scared?" Daiki jokes.

"I'm afraid it'd take a little more than darkness to scare me." Ryoko rolls her eyes playfully.

"Like what?"

"You assume I'd just tell you?" Ryoko raises her eyebrows. "Ah, my apologies, that isn't happening."

"I'll tell you what scares me." Daiki offers.

"No thanks." Ryoko denies anyway.

"Damn." Daiki chuckles.

The two drive on for a while, not sure where to stop. After driving straight for so long, they end up at a plaza. In the plaza is a Chinese fast food restaurant, a thrift shop, a convenience store and... on the corner was a firing range? Surely enough, the words 'LAS DESPAIR CITY FIRING RANGE' were on a large yellow sign on the biggest building in the plaza.

The only word spoken is 'woah' before Daiki promptly parks in front of it. An umbrella was in the car's backseat, and so Daiki grabs it and uses it to shelter him and Ryoko as they enter the firing range.

It's exactly what they expected it to be like. The room was rather dark, but the light from outside was enough for them to see the gun shop they just entered. Rifles, shotguns, handguns, revolvers, ammunition, armor, you name it, it was there. Probably most concerning was the rocket launcher on the far wall behind the counter, and the giant box nearby reading 'Stinger missles'. The counter was made up of glass casing, and inside were more smaller items-flash grenades, _frag_ grenades, combat knives, and more. Monokuma wasn't playing around.

"I'm afraid I don't know how to respond to this." Ryoko says, looking around with worried eyes. "This wouldn't be so bad anywhere else, but _here..._ especially considering the rules..."

"Kill a student and get a ticket out of here. You think someone could use these?" Daiki asks, walking around. He stops in front of the wall with handguns, looking at the smaller self-defense ones.

"I don't quite see why not. Somebody already made a robot with a knife." Ryoko replies, frowning.

Daiki nods, silently agreeing. The white-haired student reached up, taking a black, small pistol off the wall, examining it in his hands.

In a swift, sudden movement, he grips the gun tightly and shoots his arm out to point it in Ryoko's direction.

Ryoko lets out a surprised shriek, flinching in fear. "Wh- what the hell are you doing!?"

Daiki smirks. In another swift movement, he twirls the gun around so the handle is in Ryoko's direction, not the barrel. "You should take it. Self-defense."

"Don't scare me like that." Ryoko sighs. "Anyways, no. I could never use a gun. Even to defend myself."

"Suit yourself." Daiki shrugs, twirling the pistol around cowboy-style before lowering it to his side.

"You seem to know your way around guns...?" Ryoko observes.

"I'm the Ultimate Bounty Hunter. What do you expect?" Daiki replies. He looks around the room before stopping at a box marked .380 AUTO.

"...Bounty Hunter." Ryoko parrots, raising a brow.

"Bounty Hunter." Daiki confirms, opening the box and taking out six rounds. Popping out the magazine, Daiki begins loading the gun.

"I see." Ryoko says, definitely concerned.

"I'm not gonna hurt you." Daiki rolls his eyes. "Unless someone put a bounty on your head, but I doubt that'll happen."

"So you've shot people before, I take it." Ryoko says, with a sad tone.

"Only because I had to. Look, this is a Glock 42, it was made for self-defense. If you think I want to hurt anyone with it you're out of your mind." Daiki replies. The magazine was now fully loaded, and Daiki put it back inside the handgun.

There's a few moments of quietness. The duo's eyes notice a door in the back, with a sign reading 'range' on top. They decide to open the door, figuring they need to continue investigating, but alas, the room was pitch black.

"Mm. We'll need to come back here." Ryoko says, looking around the dark room from the entrance. There was nothing to be seen, however.

"Agreed. Gotta find some kind of way to get the power on." Daiki nods.

"Shall we get back in the car, then? Keep on moving?" Ryoko asks.

"Alrighty, let's go." With that, Daiki takes the lead, leaving the firing range. He opens the umbrella, making sure Ryoko doesn't get attacked by the barrage of rain from above. As they walked back to the Audi, Ryoko just couldn't help but feel worry about Daiki.

* * *

_Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep._

In the car Nicholas was piloting, a chorus of notifications rang out from the four students' pockets. They still had their ElectroIDs, and seemingly someone wanted to get in touch with them.

"The bloody 'ell's this supposta be?" Tennoyama asks, raising a brow as she fishes her own ID out of her pocket. She reads aloud the notification. "'A new announcement from Monokuma has been added'?"

"Read it," Nicholas requests.

"Alright, hold on... okay. 'So y'all might've noticed the power in the new district is out. That's cuz I wanted to remind y'all of something! The- _oh, fuck-_ riddles!'" Tennoyama reads, cursing as she does so.

"'The first riddle is up. The question is: **what's white, grey, and has blood all over it?** Go to the Escape section of your ElectroID to answer! Answer it and the power will go on! Hint, you'll need to do some investigating.'" Tennoyama finishes.

"Thought we were _done_ with investigating." Nicholas says, irritatedly. "And now the power's out? Just how much does Monokuma hate us?"

"Hell of a lot, apparently." Seymour shrugs.

"White, grey, and has blood all over it... that doesn't even make any sense." Rina furrows her eyebrows, reading the announcement off her own ElectroID.

"Where are we even supposed to look?" Tennoyama asks, "This place is too goddamned big! Ugh." she groans, rubbing her temples.

"Well, something's gonna be in the next district, I guess." Nicholas scratches his head. "Get your detective hats back on, we still got more investigating to do."

"Roger that..." Seymour agrees.

With that, the quartet drives on. They cross the four-lane bridge with ease, entering the blackout zone.

* * *

"Kagome, open up, it's Taichi."

It's past midnight at Camp Hope. The moon was up in the sky, and many were asleep, but not all staff. A few officers were still wide awake and doing their work, including Kagome and Taichi.

"Door's open, just come in." Kagome replies to the man waiting outside his room. The once private eye sat at his desk, feet up on the hardwood with the only light on being his small desk lamp, illuminating his worn-out brown loafers and the dozens of papers around them.

The door creaks open, as the light of the barracks hallway shines in. Taichi enters, pacing straight ahead to Kagome.

"I think we have a situation," he says quickly, "All of Future Foundation's battleships suddenly started moving."

"_All?_" Kagome parrots, not taking his eyes off the papers in his own hands.

"All." Taichi confirms. "Looks like they're trying to cross the Pacific. At the rate they're going though, it's going to take a while till they do."

"The Pacific..." Kagome mutters. "They going to Japan?"

"Maybe. I already tried hacking into their communications, their computers, anything, but it's gonna take some time before I can get any kinda progress. It's like they knew I was gonna do this, I don't know if I can even crack the code at all."

"The Foundation's on the move... well, try to find where they're going. ETA?"

"Assuming it's Japan they're going for... probably like, a week or two."

"Anything on Nick?"

"No... I couldn't get into the cameras," Taichi sighs. "It's as if there isn't any."

"That's not right." Kagome says. "Try again."

"That's what I've been doin' for the past few hours. They aren't online, trust me." Taichi denies.

Kagome nods. "Alright. Look, you've been doin' a lot, it's late. Go sleep, big day ahead of us."

"Ain't every day a big one?" Taichi asks, with a slight smirk. "Don't stay up too late, Mr. Private Eye."

"Alright, get out my damn room."

"Yeesh, fine. Night."

* * *

[A/N: Greetings! School's out! I have more time to write! Hahahahahaha yes. I mean I still have exams in a few days but classes are over. Thank fucking god, I got the best sleep in a long time last night. I'm just happy the year's over okay? Ahem.

Feels like I got mixed reviews on the trial. Thanks for the criticism, I will work on that. As for that execution: the whole thing was a reference to the movie Reservoir Dogs. It's weird, I never actually saw the movie, but there is a scene in that movie where that execution is more or less what happens and I just kind of stole it. Anyways, reviews.

Saiynt: It was kinda confusing eh? Sorry about that. Expect future trials to be much longer. Also what are you doing in the shadows get out of there

JokersMaze: Hahaha thanks, torturous executions are my specialty. I actually thought the minigames wouldn't make a whole lot of sense, but I guess they did woo. Thanks!

IfTimeWasStill: Keep this in mind: when it comes to writing deaths I tend to get pretty gruesome and in-depth. Enjoy your lack of sleep!

Yeah, that's kinda why I didn't like the trial much myself... I planned out the death in the middle of my writer's block where I didn't write for a few months and the creative juices were NOT flowing. Do you mind explaining why you didn't like the minigames? Thanks though.

Integras: Thanks so much! Don't worry, if wanting executions make you evil, I'm much worse, I have the time of my life everytime I write one. And yeah, the execution didn't really follow Kinzoku very much, but idk after seeing the scene in Reservoir Dogs (like mentioned above) my first thought was "holy shit I need to make this an execution" and that's what happened. Other executions will relate to the character, though.

Thanks for reading!


	10. Chapter 7: Distrust

"Okay, now this is just pushing it. A _mall?_"

It didn't take very long for all fifteen students to end up in the new district. Presumably it wasn't big as initially thought, because the entire group eventually met up. Deciding to investigate together for the time being, the Hope's Peak class stood before one of the new buildings: a mall.

"Woooo! Mall!" Hikaru cheers, dashing inside without waiting for anyone else.

"Hey, wait up!" Hoshiko yells, following after.

Puzzled expression present on her face, Shiori chased them as well.

"This is making _no_ sense. At _all._" Nicholas sighs, rubbing his eyes. This time he wasn't in pain, just confused out of his mind. "I swear to god this is all just a big joke. Watch. Monokuma's gonna jump out any second now and yell 'surprise' and we're all just gonna go home."

"What's makin' you say that?" Seymour asks, gripping the closed umbrella in his hand. The rain calmed down to some wind and a slight drizzle, so the umbrella found in their car wasn't needed.

"Just- just look at this. We've been kidnapped, forced to kill one another, and _now we're going to a goddamned mall?_" Nicholas replies, gesturing to the building. "Look at this! Parking lot and everything!"

"Yeah, this ain't addin' up right now. What the hell does Monokuma wan', for us to have fun while we're here?" Tennoyama says, bewildered as well.

"And just- how did he get his hands on all of this!? I don't get it!" Nicholas groans, exasperated. He puts his face in his hands.

"I'm not complaining..." Rina shrugs, walking ahead.

"Agreed." Seymour chuckles, right behind her.

"Hey, slow down, we're going together." Nicholas puts up a hand, getting them to stop.

By now, most students have went inside. Anyone aside from Nicholas, Seymour, Tennoyama and Rina that were outside were doing some outer investigations, wandering around. Nicholas decides to perform one such investigation of his own.

At one end of the main street were electric fences, blocking the students off from going into the next area. The buildings by now were nearly gone entirely, replaced by green trees and houses. But there was just one more building, and that was the mall. The street broke off in two directions, left into the mall's parking lot, and straight to the next district.

As for the parking lot, there were three rows of thirty angled parking spots, making for ninety spots in all. A few spots were taken by the students' cars, including Nicholas'. There were four entrances and exits, one at each corner-two on the main street side, and two for the opposite street. The mall itself was three floors, and according to the glass dome roof, seemed pretty high end. A sign above the entrance read 'LAS DESPAIR CITY MALL OF DESPAIR'. _Well, that's not redundant at all._ Something that striked Nicholas as odd was the lack of cameras. They were littered everywhere downtown, but in Nicholas' time in this district, he hasn't seen a single one.

"Well? Whatcha thinkin', Detective?" A voice startles Nicholas out of his investigative trance. He looks over, finding Durion at his side-or is that Nori?

"I'm confused. This whole situation is making less and less sense by the minute." Nicholas shrugs. "You?"

"This doesn't make sense to _you_? Please, I've been here for about an hour, tops." the male before him rolls his eyes, all but confirming it's Nori and not Durion.

"Right... so, what's up with that?" Nicholas asks, raising a brow, referring to his seemingly alternate personality.

"What's up with what?" Nori tilts his head.

"Er. You." Nicholas clarifies rather bluntly.

"Me? What's up with you?" Nori asks back, feigning hurt by leaning back. He recovers quickly though. "I'm Durion's brother." he then explains.

"Brother...?"

"Yeah."

"How's that work?"

"I'unno, I just work here. It does."

Nicholas blinks. "Right."

"Anyway. Just because me and my bro share a body, it doesn't mean I get all his memories. What the heck's going on here? Last I remember, we were uh... running from someone?" Nori says thoughtfully, before literally shrugging it off.

_Running from someone? Who?_

"Well. We've been kidnapped. Forced to kill one another if we really wanna get out of here." Nicholas gives the extremely abridged version of the past few days. "You uh, you showed up in the trial of our friend Hibiki Yukata... you know what happened there."

"So, what's-her-name killed Hibiki and got killed herself? What the hell's up with that?" Nori asks, puzzled. _Takes something to puzzle the Puzzle Solver..._

"Yeah... Final step before freedom is survive the trial. Convince everyone you didn't do it. But for you to escape, everyone else is supposed to _die._"

"Huh. High stakes."

"Mhm. Welcome to, uh," Nicholas takes a look at the mall's sign, "Las Despair City."

"Fun!" Nori cheers. "When's the next trial?"

"Woah. Hey. Plan is for us to not _have_ a next trial." Nicholas replies, backing up a step and putting his hands out in front of him. "That's... all we've got for a plan, but we're gonna start working on getting out of here."

"You really think Hibiki will be the last victim?" Nori asks. "C'mon. Look around you, the odds are pretty stacked against us, there's no way we can fight back and expect to win, don't you think?"

"What's your plan then? Sit here and die?" Nicholas counters.

"Nah. Wait for an opportunity, those Future people to come save us, I dunno. But for something like that to happen, s'gonna take some time. Some losses are gonna happen."

"Future people?" Nicholas asks. He doesn't wait for a reply before shaking his head. "Look, I don't know, maybe you're right, but let's just hope it doesn't happen."

_..._

_Huh?_

Nicholas would notice a wave of pain rushing through his head without warning. His brain was suddenly strained, as he felt like he was starting to remember something.

Nothing happened, however.

"Ay. Nicky. You good?" Nori asks, waving a hand in front of the officer's face. "You're spacin' out."

"I'm fine, yeah..." Nicholas says, a bit wearily. The wave was gone, but Nicholas continued trying to remember whatever his brain had a grasp on, but that grasp wasn't quite tight enough. "Hey, I'm gonna go. Catch up with you later."

Nori nods, sending Nicholas off with a salute.

_What was that? That whole conversation was weird. What was Nori going on about... Future people... that sounds so familiar. What was I about to remember?_

_Is it related to that email?_

Nicholas stood alone in the parking lot. Seymour, Rina, and Tennoyama were wandering around, currently looking inside a window at some clothes. The latter two, anyway. Seymour wasn't quite one for women's clothes and wasn't paying the most attention. Nicholas took a moment to glance around some more, finally going and approaching them.

"Nick. You done?" Seymour asks, seeing Nicholas coming and walking up to meet him halfway.

Nicholas nods. "Nori's an interesting person."

"How so?" Seymour questions.

"Complicated." Nicholas shrugs. "How about we go inside now?"

"Let's do it." Seymour agrees. He calls out to the girls, peeling them away from the window. The squad promptly moves out.

The mall's interior was huge. Looking up, one could look through the balconies of the second and third floors all the way up to the glass dome ceiling, littered in little raindrops and covered by grey clouds. There were no lights on in the building, making for the only illumination being the few rays of sunlight from above. Ahead of the entrance, one could go straight ahead, southwest, or southeast, and the latter two directions were side areas to the mall. The main area, straight ahead, had several stores set up in a line much like a hallway There was a gap in the stores allowing someone to go to the west or east parts of the first floor from the middle. Those side areas were set up the same way like a hallway, except they curved toward the middle, making the overall shape of the floor circular. The side areas had elevators and directly ahead in the main was a staircase, but all ways upstairs were blocked off by chains and locks. Immediately noticeable were the booths set up around the mall, such as the one with several cell phones on display, and one offering t-shirts and custom made ones. In the exact center was a giant fountain, going past the third floor.

"Woah, this place is _big._" Rina says, mouth agape. She walks ahead of the group, looking about. Seymour takes her side, copying the movement, leaving Tennoyama and Nicholas behind.

"Mmm... so, what're we supposed to be lookin' for?" Tennoyama asks.

"Anything of interest, I guess..." Nicholas says, unsure himself. "We still need to answer that riddle."

"White, grey, and blood all ova' it. The hell could that be?" Tennoyama sighs. "Maybe we can just go without th' power."

"Well, if we solve all the riddles, maybe Monokuma'll actually let us go. I'm willing to do anything." Nicholas replies.

"You really think so? I doubt he would t'be honest with ya."

"I don't think we have anything to lose... I hope, anyway."

Nicholas pauses, feeling another slight pain flash. _Again?_

"This mall is way too big to search the whole damned thing," Tennoyama comments, either having not noticed Nicholas' pain or ignoring it. "How're we supposed to do this?"

"There are sevente- er, fifteen of us," Nicholas replies, "Maybe we can split up and search other areas..."

The quartet moves up, now at the fountain spewing out water. They take a moment to pause, looking around the somewhat complicated building. From here they decide to split up, with Nicholas and Tennoyama going straight and Rina and Seymour turning to check out the east sector.

Directly at the end were two escalators. One for going up, one for going down. Accompanying them was a normal staircase, but for whatever reason, all three ways up were blocked off by probably unnecessarily large locks and chains. They weren't going upstairs any time soon. In that hall there were several stores, with brand name clothing shops, sporting shops, and jewelry. Nothing appeared of interest, however.

"Soo... I play it like this?"

A familiar feminine voice is suddenly heard, following by a _really_ annoying screeching noise. Nicholas winces, looking around, before seeing a few of the girls in one of the stores.

"No!" Hoshiko says, grabbing a violin and bow out of Hikaru's hands. "Watch."

Hoshiko begins playing the instrument, reciting a piece. Nicholas and Tennoyama stay at the entrance, watching on in silence, not to interrupt her. Hoshiko and Hikaru were accompanied by Shiori, in a store selling instruments. From violas to cellos, acoustics to electrics, recorders to flutes and then some, it was a musician's paradise. Stairs in the back went up to the second floor of the store, and presumably the mall as well.

"That's a beautiful song she's playing." Nicholas whispers to Tennoyama. It was a light, peaceful tune.

"Agreed. Can you play like that?" Tennoyama asks.

"Hell no... I used to play guitar, though." Nicholas says.

With that, Nicholas looks around for one. Tennoyama follows close by, looking around at the instruments. "I'd learn one but I think this is gonna be a problem, y'know?"

"What is?" Nicholas asks. He approaches a wall of acoustic guitars, not taking his eyes off of them.

"My damned finger." Tennoyama clarifies, holding up her left hand. Nicholas looks over, remembering-the Mountain Climber lost her ring finger.

"What even happened to it?"

"Shit happens."

Soon enough, Hoshiko's done showing off. Tennoyama promptly breaks out into applause. "Good job girl! That's some talent right here you know?"

"Good playing." Nicholas compliments as well.

"Thanks guys," Hoshiko says. A hint of blood rushed to her face as Shiori and Hikaru copied the applause.

"You guys find anything in here?" Nicholas asks, still looking at the guitars. He was looking for a specific model.

"Instruments." Hoshiko shrugs.

"Nothing related to that riddle though, huh?" Nicholas frowns.

"Afraid not." Shiori breaks the news. "There's equipment and sheet music upstairs, but nothing of utter importance. Plus, there's no way into the mall's second floor up there."

"Damn." Nicholas curses.

After a few moments, he eventually takes down a guitar. It's a beige acoustic with a dark brown pick guard. Down near the fifteenth fret, there's a cutaway for one's hand to get closer to the latter frets of the instrument. According to the name on the head, it was a Fender.

"We got two musicians in the house, hmm? Think you're better than Hoshiko?" Tennoyama challenges.

"Well, I mean, I wouldn't say that-" Nicholas starts.

"Too late this is a competition now. Winner gets a coffee on me. And I'll betcha Hoshiko's gonna win this one." Tennoyama says confidently, with a giant grin on her face.

"Oh, this doesn't need to be a contest-"

"I'm not even that good to be honest-"

"Shut up and play!"

"Ooooh this is gonna be good." Hikaru says, walking over to Nicholas to watch him play.

_How'd I get into this._

Nicholas pulls up a nearby, convenient grey stool and takes a seat. For a moment, he looks at the guitar, trying to remember a certain song. It'd been years since he last played, and when he did, it was on a _classical_ guitar; a different story than an acoustic.

_Seventh fret E string... open B string, open G string, repeat._

Placing his right ring, middle, and index fingers on the treble strings of the guitar, Nicholas also puts his left index on the seventh fret of the E string-the bottom one. B was the next one up, and G followed. He starts plucking, playing a descending classical song by the name Spanish Romance. The song was meant to be played quickly, and Nicholas made sure to keep that high tempo.

Nicholas was doing okay, until a part came where he had to play the fifth fret on the B and G strings. He paused, practically freezing up as he tried to place his fingers where they were supposed to go, only to get confused and fumble his fingers about.

"Aaaand we have a winner!" Tennoyama quickly cheers, grabbing Hoshiko's hand and raising it in the air. "How's about me and you go find a coffee shop, hmm?"

"Are you flirting with her?" Nicholas jokes, deciding that was enough of the guitar and put it back where he found it. _It's not the one I played, but I should come back and get this soon..._

"Depends." Tennoyama replies, completely seriously.

"Ehh!?" Hoshiko flinches. "I-I don't swing that way!"

"Dammit." Tennoyama curses, before immediately turning to Hikaru. "What about you?"

"Eh? What about me?" she asks.

"Coffee! Now!" Tennoyama demands.

"Sure." Hikaru shrugs.

"Excellent!" Tennoyama cheers, baring a huge grin. She grabs Hikaru's hand and basically dragged her out of the store, who was also smiling all silly-like.

"Coffee! Woo!" Hikaru pumped her free hand in the air. "They have chocolate too, right?"

"Pah, probably." Tennoyama is heard saying from outside the store, and after that the duo disappear without a trace.

Leaving Nicholas, Hoshiko, and Shiori alone in the music store.

"Umm, what just happened?" Shiori asks the million dollar question, face beet red.

* * *

Seymour and Rina travelled the east district of the first floor together. Since this area was hidden from the glass ceiling, no sunlight was shining, and thanks to the lack of power the sector was nearly pitch black.

"So, Rina." Seymour says, starting small talk. "Tell me about yourself. Ultimate Skier, yeah?"

"Oh! Yeah! Well, Ultimate Alpine Skier." Rina corrects. A smile looked as if it were permanently planted onto her face. "My whole family's a buncha skiers. Except my brother I guess. He ended up being a... right, he's the Ultimate Battle Strategist."

"How the hell does that work?" Seymour asks, bewildered. "Family full of skiers and this guy runs off to be a Battle Strategist?"

"Heh heh, yeah, he wasn't interested in skiing." Rina chuckles, scratching her neck under her dark brown hair.

"Hm. So you followed in your family's footsteps and he was the rebel, huh?" Seymour says, pocketing his hands.

"Exactly. I'm uh, I'm part of the Swiss Olympic ski team now," Rina says sheepishly, "Youngest member."

"And how old are you?"

"...fifteen."

"Wow." Seymour says in amazement. "I've seen some pretty crazy Ultimates, but rarely someone in the Olympics... good work."

"Thanks!" Rina smiles happily. She looks over to Seymour, deciding to ask the question she herself was asked. "How about you? What's it like being an Ultimate Journalist?"

"Not easy. You get involved in some _interesting _things." Seymour says thoughtfully. The way he put emphasis on 'interesting' gave off the impression that he didn't mean it in a necessarily good way.

"Like what?" Rina asks, tilting her head.

"..." Seymour doesn't reply, for a moment. "Do you know anything about me?" he suddenly asks.

"Huh? Um... Well, your name is pretty familiar, but that's about it." Rina replies, confused. She furrows her eyebrows. "Why?"

"Then you haven't heard my big story yet, hm?" Seymour asks.

"No? Ooh, what is it?" Rina asks, curious as a monkey named George.

"Another day." Seymour says, simply. "I'm afraid it's a rather _long_ story, and... to put it short, I still get nightmares."

Rina goes silent. _Oh dear..._ she thinks, _What happened to him?_

"Sorry." Seymour apologizes. "Thankfully, that was the only time I had a really bad story."

"I'm sorry." Rina then apologizes, solemnly. With her eyes glued to the tiled floor, the girl looked genuinely apologetic. "I shouldn't have asked-"

"Wait, shut up for a sec." Seymour suddenly cuts her off in a harsh whisper.

Rina's even more confused than she was before. Despite it, she listens, and not another word comes out of her mouth.

"Do you hear that?" Seymour whispers.

The skier focuses her ears on anything in the area. For a while, she doesn't hear anything... there's wind, but that can't be anything, right?

_Hold on... how is there wind? This place is entirely closed in. And that doesn't sound exactly like..._

"Yeah. Yeah, I do." Rina whispers, looking around for the source. "Is that wind?"

"No, no, I don't think so..." Seymour whispers back. He reaches into his satchel, pulling out his camera and using its strap to hang it from his neck, setting it up to record. "Listen carefully."

Rina wasn't entirely sure, but the sound of the wind rubbed her the wrong way. It wasn't your usual howl of wind, there was something else accompanying it.

Words?

"Is... someone saying something?" Rina asks.

"Stay close." Seymour says, beckoning her to follow with his hand as he slowly walks forward.

The duo could swear they heard someone speaking. No, not just someone, several people. Dozens. It was as if this group was whispering, and their words were all slurred together in one giant jumble of a mess. They couldn't make out any words, but if they could describe the tone, they'd say it was distressed. Calls for help. Pain. But from who?

"Hello?" Rina shakily calls out, raising her voice. No reply.

"Show yourself!" Seymour calls as well, only to get the same result.

The source took them to the northeastern corner of the mall, the darkest part of the hall. There was one final shop, which seemed to be nothing more than a simple magazine store... except, the whispers came from here. Chills ran down Seymour's spine, as he quietly approached it.

"You wouldn't have a light, would ya?" Seymour whispers to Rina, noting the darkness of the store. It was near pitch black.

"No." Rina replies, "I do have my ElectroID..."

"Pass it." Seymour requests.

Rina reaches into the pockets of her snow pants, grabbing the matte black device and giving it to Seymour. He gives his thanks as he takes it, opening up the menu and tapping at some options. Before long, a bright light suddenly shoots out of the other end, like a flashlight.

"Oh wow. How'd you do that?" Rina asks.

"Utilities. It's on the main page." Seymour quickly explains. "You ready?"

"Yeah, sure... little spooked out right now though, I won't lie..." Rina says.

"It's probably just another trick from Monokuma. Come on." Seymour tries reassuring, before finally entering.

In front of the entrance and to the left was the cashier desk. On the side facing the doors were assorted chocolate bars and candies, including gum and mints. The far wall was filled with dozens of magazines, although from where Seymour and Rina stood, they could only see half of the wall: shelves full of home necessities such as toilet paper and plastic utensils were in the way. The right-hand wall seemed to have beverages in it, but again, the shelves were blocking.

The whispers appeared to come from the corner past the shelves on the right. Gulping, Seymour takes the lead and silently walks. He notices his legs start trembling. He had a bad feeling about this.

_Let's do it,_ he thinks.

As he turns around the shelf, the light shines upon the corner, revealing what's there. And Seymour's bad feeling seemed to be true.

"Oh, god!" Seymour shouts, rearing back. He nearly drops the ElectroID. Rina lets out a terrified scream, seeing what was there.

In the corner between the wall of magazines and the closest shelf was a dried up, pink puddle. They know what it is. They've seen it before. It's blood.

"Oh no. Another...?" Rina starts, trailing off.

With no apparent explanation, Seymour and Rina find a strike of pain staggering through their heads, like a sudden migraine. Seymour grunts, dropping the device in his hand, putting up a hand to hold his head. "Agh!" Rina does the same.

_What is going on!? Oh god, we shouldn't have came in here!_

After a few moments, the pain slowly disappeared. This left the two standing in the convenience store alone, with the whispers gone. As if nothing happened. Unfortunately, the blood was still there.

"Oh my gosh. What just happened?" Rina asks Seymour, eyes wide with fear.

"I don't know. Go. Alright? Go. Find Nicholas and Tennoyama, get the hell out of here." Seymour orders, tensely. He points a finger at Rina.

"What? You want me to leave you here?" Rina raises a brow.

"I'm gonna look around. _Go._" Seymour tries again. "I don't know what's going on here, but- something's up. Get out of this mall."

"No! I'm staying with you!" Rina protests. She plants her feet into the ground and crosses her arms, giving Seymour an angry pout.

"You realize it's not safe here, right?" Seymour asks, gritting his teeth. "Look at what just happened. Monokuma's playin' mind games and it's enough to... do whatever just happened to us."

"I don't care. Strength in numbers, right? What if we're alone and something happens to us?" Rina asks.

Seymour doesn't reply for a moment. He looks around, in thought, before sighing. "Okay, fine, there's no time. Just stay _close._"

"Got it." Rina nods.

There was an awful lot of blood. Whoever's blood it was couldn't be alive after this, giving Seymour the thought that there may be another victim. He bends down to touch the blood, finding that it's dry and had little to no smell. It looked old, much older than the blood found that morning. Just how old is it? Seymour notes a white CCTV camera in the corner above. _Maybe that thing caught what happened here,_ he thought. _Just need to get the damned power on._

"Oh my gosh, look at these magazines..." Rina says, holding an issue of Time in her hands, looking at the cover with concerned eyes.

Seymour gets up, standing next to the skier to read the cover.

'Future Foundation: Once Our Saviors, Now Our Enemies?' read the title. The background was a neon pink, much like the ground's blood. Behind the caption were three soldiers, all armed with rifles, decked from head to toe in high-tech winter camoflage armor.

"Future Foundation..." Seymour mutters. Remembering his camera is still recording, he shows the magazine in his video-to-be. "Who is that?"

"I don't know. Someone ripped the pages out," Rina replies, opening the cover. Sure enough, there were no pages inside the book. The back cover was of no help either, being completely black.

"Keep lookin'." Seymour says, doing the same himself.

Seemingly, all the magazines were talking about the same thing. The Future Foundation. They were put in a bad light, however. Talking about how bad of a group they are. Seymour picked one in particular up, which appeared to mention a specific event.

"Look at this one. 'Future Foundation to commit mass genocide...' The rest is ripped out." Seymour says, showing Rina. Like he said, the cover was ripped up past the word 'genocide'. There was a photo of many seemingly homeless people sitting on the sidewalk, with several soldiers standing above them with the same winter camoflage as before. Accompanying them were men in suits and ties, as well.

"Holy Roman Empire..." Rina whispers. "Who are these Future Foundation people?"

"Military?" Seymour suggests. "All these covers have soldiers on them."

"No... no, the military's not bad, are they?" Rina asks. "Albern never told me about anything like this..."

"This one is. I don't know how I haven't heard of these people, though..." Seymour mutters.

"Same. Maybe these are fake." Rina says.

Seymour scrunches his face in thought. _I... don't know about that._

"Remember we were knocked out at school and woke up here." Seymour says. "We don't know how long we were out."

"You mean we might've been out long enough for this so-called _genocide_ to happen?" Rina asks.

"I don't know." Seymour frowns, studying the cover further. "It's probably fake. Forget about it."

Despite his words, Seymour clearly thought there was more to it than that. He rolled up the cover and put it in his satchel. Rina had her doubts, but she thought so as well.

That seemed to be it. There was nothing else in that corner, so they extended their investigation to the rest of the shop. Fortunately or unfortunately, there was nothing else to be seen.

"Okay, that's it. Should we uh, hurry up and get the heck out of here?" Rina suggests, eyes looking toward the entrance.

"Best thing I heard all day." Seymour agrees. With that, they leave.

* * *

"I have to say, I don't understand why Monokuma would give us a mall..."

The entrance to the mall opens and in walks Daiki and Ryoko. They'd been cruising around the area, and found the mall's parking lot had a few cars, figuring some of their fellow students were here.

"Everything he does doesn't make any sense. I'm not even surprised at this point." Daiki shrugs.

"Good point." Ryoko nods in agreement.

They wander around, not sure where to go. The floor's expanse was pretty intimidating, especially in the dark. The clouds above were multiplying, blocking the sun even more. Seems like another round of rain was coming.

"I can't believe this. Big ass mall and there's no damn coffee shop!?"

Daiki and Ryoko's attention were directed toward the sudden swearing of a certain mountain climber. Tennoyama walked into the middle from the western side of the floor, hands in fists at her side with a tense face. She was clearly frusturated. At her side was a dismayed Hikaru.

"I know right? I was looking forward to that coffee." Hikaru says, frowning.

"Coffee? You do realize there's like, a dozen cafes around, right?" Daiki asks.

"Eh?" Tennoyama turns her head. "Okay, sure, but we'd have to get back in the car! That's too much work, y'know?"

"We need it _now!_" Hikaru puffs out her cheeks. "They always have sweets! _And I need them!_"

"Christ, quiet down girl." Daiki rolls his eyes. "You look upstairs yet?"

"It would appear there is no way upstairs." Ryoko comments, noticing how the stairs were blocked off.

"Yeah! What she said!" Hikaru exclaims. "We can't go upstairs!"

"I'm sure you could prop something up and get there through that balcony..." Daiki says, looking up at the second floor's balcony.

"One: too high. Two: Monokuma'd probably kill us." Tennoyama says, counting off her reasons on her fingers. "I'm not in the mood for dying today!"

"Yeah! Another day!"

"I'm getting a headache already." Daiki murmurs.

"Looks like you're out of luck, then." Ryoko frowns. "My condolences."

"Thank you," Hikaru says, in between sniffs. ...Was she crying?

"Well... if we can't get coffee, we shall find another location for our date." Tennoyama says, crossing her arms. "How about my room, love?"

"Okay!"

"Wonderful!"

The two literally skip away.

"Sometimes I question the sanity of these people." Daiki says, to which Ryoko giggles.

After that little debacle, they keep wandering. They pass by a book store, and being the Ultimate Poetess, Ryoko was drawn to it. It was their next destination, of course.

Time passes by. Nothing of interest happened for a while, with Ryoko looking through random novels, and Daiki standing in front of the magazine stand.

"Ah, look at this one!" Ryoko says, holding up a book in her hand. "It's mine, I wrote this!"

"Mm?" Daiki looks over, seeing a thick novel with a blue leather cover. "Damn. Your books are in book stores, too?"

"Of course. Would you like to read?"

"Sure. Bring it over."

"Um... would you mind coming here?" Ryoko requests.

"Why? I'm busy lookin' at these magazines." Daiki says. There was a rather interesting pattern to them.

"Well, you see... there's no light in this building. And you're in the back of the store, and it's simply... too dark." Ryoko says, hesitantly.

"Too dark? What do you mean?"

"Ah, you shouldn't read in the dark, right?" Ryoko says, laughing. In a terribly awkward and nervous tone.

"I'll be fine, come on." Daiki rolls his eyes.

"I do also have one working eye, remember?" Ryoko says, referring to the fact that her left eye was covered by a white eyepatch. "I can't quite see where I'm going in the darkness because of it."

"Are you serious?" Daiki sighs. "Alright. Lemme bring a few of these."

Daiki grabs three different magazines and walks over to Ryoko. "Wonderful," she says, sighing in relief. "Read." The Poetess then holds the book out in front of her, for Daiki to take.

"Okay. You take these, then." Daiki replies. They trade books, with Daiki holding Ryoko's book and Ryoko holding the magazines.

Daiki takes a moment to look at the book. It was huge. He was a fan of reading and even writing as well, and was actually pretty excited to read it. Ryoko had a point though, no reason to be reading in the dark. Can't see. Daiki unzips his sweater, revealing the black t-shirt underneath, before putting the book in an inside pocket to read later. Ryoko couldn't help but notice Daiki's muscle definition poking through the shirt.

"Like what you see?" Daiki grins, zipping his hoodie back up.

"N-No." Ryoko stutters, immediately blushing. "A-Anyways! These magazines. Wh-what are these?" she asks, quickly changing the topic.

"I dunno, they sounded pretty messed up." Daiki says, "Read the covers."

"...Hundreds of Superiors found dead, Future Foundation to blame." Ryoko quotes off the page. She raises a brow. "What?"

"Not sure. This Future Foundation doesn't sound very great though." Daiki shrugs.

"Daiki? Ryoko?"

Another male voice is heard, suddenly. The duo look to the entrance, finding _another_ duo.

"You find magazines about the Future Foundation?" Seymour asks as the Journalist enters, Rina at his side.

"Check it out." Daiki says, gesturing to the books in Ryoko's hands. Seymour quickly goes to her side and reads them.

"Lord..." Seymour sighs. "Look, we gotta get out of this fucking mall. Something just happened to me and Rina, and..." Seymour trails off.

"What happened?" Ryoko asks.

"...You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Just trust me, something's not right with this place, and we need to go ASAP."

"You guys okay?" Daiki asks.

"I've got a bit of a headache," Rina replies, "but I'm not hurt."

"Same with me." Seymour agrees.

"Alright, let's get the hell out of here then..." Daiki says, unzipping his sweater again to put the magazines Ryoko had inside. Closing it back up, the four leave.

Meanwhile, Nicholas, Hoshiko, and Shiori were outside, having heard the whole thing. Nicholas immediately goes up to Seymour and Rina.

"Seymour, Rina! What the hell happened to you two?" Nicholas asks, worried.

Seymour pauses. "I got it on video, I'll show you later." Nicholas noticed hesitation in his voice.

"Right," Nicholas nods. The group starts walking and he follows. "Question. Your head hurts?"

"Mhm. Had a hell of a headache a little while ago." Seymour says.

"Was it like... I don't know how to explain it, like pain just kind of shot through it?" Nicholas asks.

Seymour stops dead in his tracks, with the cop doing the same. "Yeah. How did you know?"

"That's what's been happening to me..." Nicholas replies.

"...Nicholas, c'mere." Seymour says. The group leaves the mall without Seymour and Nicholas, leaving them to be the only two there. It was eerily silent.

"What's up?" Nicholas asks. The way Seymour pulled him aside was concerning, making Nicholas tense up.

"Look. I've been thinking, and I'm not so sure, but-Nicholas, out of all of us, you're the odd one out." Seymour says.

_What?_

"What is that supposed to mean?" Nicholas asks, crossing his arms as he leans against the wall to a nearby store.

"Things ain't addin' up with you. You've been acting weird, acting like you know something we don't... you mention despair, Monokuma starts talking about despair. Now you tell me you've been getting the same weird ass headaches Rina and I just got. What's going on?" Seymour copies the movement of crossing his arms.

"Woah, woah, woah. This some kind of interrogation?" Nicholas asks, now standing up straight. "I'm no criminal. I'm on the good side, I'm a cop."

"It's always who you least expect." Seymour retorts.

"I know as much as you do, Seymour." Nicholas says. Hesitation follows. _That's not true. Ultimate Despair. I know about Ultimate Despair. Does he?_

"Hmm?" Seymour caught the hesitation. "Nick, don't lie to me."

It's then that Nicholas remembers he talked about it in the journal entry he made earlier that day. "Seymour, come look at this. I swear to god this is all I know." he says, as he pulls out his ElectroID and pulls up the video.

_"God knows how I forgot about it, but I got an email about a month or two ago. It was an anonymous tip, talking about this Ultimate Despair. It mentioned a few names. A Junko Enoshima... Mukuro Ikusaba... Hinata Hajime. Izuru Kamakura. I don't know who these people are. Or maybe I do, but I forgot."_

"Ultimate Despair... what the hell is that?" Seymour asks bluntly.

"I don't know. The email was very secretive. All it said is, a storm is coming."

"Lemme guess, this is that storm."

"I'd put my money on it."

"I was right, then." Seymour says, looking Nicholas in the eye. "You _are_ the odd one out."

"Even so, are you suspicious of me being the mastermind behind this whole thing?" Nicholas asks.

"Nick, look me in the eye and tell me you're an innocent man." Seymour says.

"Seymour, I swear on mine, and my brothers' lives that I have nothing to do with this." Nicholas says, as geniunely as he can. It was the truth, right? "Maybe I am the odd one out, but I'm not the bad guy."

"...alright." Seymour nods. "I'm sorry about that. Still leaves one gaping question, though. Why are _you_ the odd one out?"

_That's a damn good question._

* * *

[A/N: Sorry for the wait! I was on vacation. Went to Miami man. It was friggin hot. Anyway, finally finished this today woo. No comments, let's just get to reviews.

IfTimeWasStill: Dw, I don't plan on having a slow pace, bodies won't take too long to find. As for the minigames, well... sure, they probably make more sense in a game than a story, but that's just how I'm going to go about it, my apologies. For the record, no they weren't button mashing like a bunch of imbeciles.

PSISomething: Thanks! As I keep saying, I will work on the next trial much more.

Saiynt: Ritsu's pocketwatch confirmed.

JokersMaze: Nope. It's Ritsu's pocketwatch.

ApexUtopia: Conspiracies? Indeed indeed. Something's up here man. Spooky. Thanks!

dashunterman: Now I wanna write a road trip chapter... you people are giving me ideas.

Integras: They're definitely on the right track, and that room will be returning. Thanks btw, exams were way easier than I thought.

Thanks for reading!]


	11. Chapter 8: War

_"Oh my gosh. What just happened?"_

_"I don't know. Go. Alright? Go. Find Nicholas and Tennoyama, get the hell out of here."_

Nicholas and Seymour sat in the front seats of the car they drove in with. Rina was in the back, and Hoshiko replaced Tennoyama. The four were huddled around the camera Seymour put on the console, watching the events that unfolded in the convenience store. Seymour realized he couldn't explain it, and the only way was to show them.

"And here is when the headaches stopped." Nicholas states, taking his eyes off the camera to meet with Seymour's.

"Exactly. Remember how I said there were whispers?" Seymour asks, looking up to Nicholas. They were caught on camera, but for some unexplainable reason, the audio was heavily distorted whenever a whisper was heard. "They stopped here too."

"Did you see anywhere they might've came from?" Nicholas asks, going back to watching the footage.

"Nope. No vents, speakers, nothing. Here's the thing though, Nick-they weren't being played, it was as if someone was really _there._" Seymour replies, frowning.

"It was really weird." Rina comments.

"Hey, wait a second, what's that?" Hoshiko asks, leaning forward to get a better look at the camera.

The video got to the part where Seymour was looking at the magazines, particularly the issue that mentioned the Future Foundation's mass genocide. "Hmm? The magazine?" Seymour asks, before reaching into his satchel. A moment later, he pulls out the cover seen in the video, giving it to Hoshiko. "Here, look."

Hoshiko takes it out of Seymour's hands, giving it a close look. Her face goes through about a dozen different expressions as she reads, mostly confusion and at the same time realization. "We saw something like this in the hospital!" she says, looking up.

"What do you mean?" Nicholas asks.

"In one of the ER rooms," Hoshiko clarifies, "It was filled up with all this blood and stuff, and we found this magazine... it said, uh, crap what was it..."

"Did you take any pictures?" Rina tries.

"Gabriel did." Hoshiko says.

"Text him. Get him to send you them." Seymour requests.

"...er, with what phone?" Hoshiko asks, blinking.

"No, your ElectroID. You saw the 'chat' option, didn't you?" Seymour explains, "We can all message each other. Chances are we can send pictures too, hm?"

"Wait a sec." Hoshiko says, reaching into the pocket of her black hoodie, getting out her ElectroID and powering it on. She makes an 'ooh' face, seemingly having found what Seymour was talking about. "That's pretty useful, actually..."

After that, a bunch of _tick-tick-tick_ noises resounded through the car's interior as Hoshiko began typing out a message to Gabriel. A few seconds later a _plop_ sound effect let everyone know the message was sent.

"Looks like you've been using your ElectroID." Nicholas comments, referring to Seymour's knowledge on the things.

"I've always been a curious guy." Seymour shrugs.

_Beep beep_

"Oh! Gabriel replied." Hoshiko says. That same notification noise they heard during the morning's investigation period was heard, bringing back memories for a split second. Alas, there's bigger problems than that. Hoshiko opens the message, "He sent all the pictures he took. Here, look."

Seymour's video had ended by now anyway, so he put his camera back in his satchel, now having Hoshiko's ElectroID on the console. All four in the car look at the photos Gabriel supplied them with. One of the photos was of a newspaper, with a headline: 'Hundreds of Superiors found dead, Future Foundation to blame'. Hoshiko's about to swipe to the next one, but Seymour stops her.

"Daiki had this in the mall." Seymour realizes, pointing at the picture. "I remember that headline, that picture too. What the hell?"

"Well, I assume we were supposed to find these." Nicholas says.

"Any _thoughts, _Nick?" Seymour asks. The question had a knowing tone to it, which Nicholas found odd, until he remembered the conversation they had in the mall.

"Nope. No memories there." Nicholas shakes his head.

"Memories?" Rina questions.

"Not important." Nicholas tries waving it off, but Seymour wasn't having it.

"Nicholas knows more than we do." he explains rather bluntly. "He just remembered an email a few months ago about this group called Ultimate Despair, who are the people behind this whole sick game."

"Woah, what?" Rina cocks her head to the side. "And you didn't tell us this?"

"It's complicated, okay? I don't understand it either." Nicholas sighs. _Don't tell me you're suspicious too._

"I don't think this is the time for that..." Hoshiko says. "Nick's a good guy. We should get back to this... why does Monokuma want us to see this?"

From there, the group goes silent. They look outside at the accelerating pace of the rain hitting the empty parking lot pavement, hoping for some inspiration.

"The riddle." Rina suddenly speaks up.

"Eh? What about it?" Hoshiko asks.

"Look at all these pictures," Rina says, picking up the ElectroID and starts swiping through them. "What can we tell about this Future Foundation?"

"Well, they're _some_ kind of military, for one." Nicholas starts.

"A bad one at that." Seymour adds.

"Right. If we look at the soldiers, though... what can we tell about _them?_" Rina then asks. She pinches the touch screen, zooming in on one of the soldiers from the newspaper picture.

"They look Japanese," Nicholas comments.

"That's probably important, but... not what I mean." Rina shakes her head.

Silence follows.

Rina sighs. "Remember the riddle. 'What's white, grey, and has blood all over it?'"

Everyone's eyes go back to the soldiers. There was no blood to be seen in the photos, but...

"They're wearing winter camouflage," Nicholas says, realizing where Rina's getting at. "White and grey!"

"Judging by all this talk about genocide and how bad they are, I'm willing to bet the 'blood all over it' isn't supposed to be literal." Seymour nods.

"Exactly!" Rina says, satisfied. "Is this the answer? Future Foundation is white, grey, and uh, has blood all over it?"

"Well, what'd the rules say? We have five attempts per person?" Nicholas says. "I think it's okay to try."

"Hold on. Good theory, but what if this isn't right?" Seymour raises a brow. "The rules say all that's gonna happen is we lose an attempt, but what if Monokuma goes all the way and kills us for getting it wrong?"

"Oh dear." Hoshiko gulps.

"No... I doubt that'll happen for some reason." Nicholas shakes his head. "We gotta try. There's a chance that if we get these all right we can actually be _freed._"

"Well, who's gonna put it in then?" Hoshiko asks, before freezing up for a second. "U-Uh, I'm not doing it."

"Not it." Seymour says.

Nicholas and Rina look at each other. "So. You or me?" Nicholas asks.

"...I'll do it." Rina says. "There _is_ a risk, I guess... and if you really know more than us, maybe we should be trying to keep you alive."

"Wait, so what does that mean?" Nicholas blinks. "You're willing to...?"

Rina lets out a deep breath. The rate of her heartbeat was already climbing, to her dismay. "Yeah. I have to do what I have to, right?" She gives Nicholas a small smile.

_I..._

"You know what to do, right?" Nicholas asks.

"Mhm. Go to Escape, and type it in, right?" Rina says, taking her ElectroID out. She powers it on, noticing the others' anxious eyes. "Hey, don't worry guys! I'll be okay!" she grins.

"You better be right, goddammit." Seymour sighs. "You're a good partner."

"Partner? Ooh, what's that about?" Nicholas jokes; an attempt to lighten the situation.

"_Investigative_ partner, my friend." Seymour rolls his eyes.

Rina felt her face warming up. "Hehe, thanks."

The next few minutes are agonizingly quiet. Rina opens up the 'Escape' option, which took her to the screen with the question at the top and a keyboard for entering your answer below. Nicholas, Seymour, and Hoshiko watch on in silence as Rina closes her eyes, opening them again and beginning to type.

_Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick..._

_"Upupu. Answer received!"_

* * *

**A slot machine appears on Rina's ElectroID. There's only two things it could be: neon green checkmarks, or bright red Xs. On top of the machine is the question and the answer given.**

**...**

**Slot one is a checkmark.**

**...**

**Slot two is a checkmark.**

**...**

**Slot three is a checkmark.**

**RIDDLE #1 HAS BEEN SOLVED.**

**POWERING DISTRICT.**

* * *

With that, the screen goes black. As the day got into the latter hours of the afternoon and the rain grew heavier, it was starting to get dark in the area.

That is, until the streetlights powered on.

For the first time since the new district was opened, the lights went on. Streetlights illuminated the roads, and the mall's sign was given new life with a neon lights of all colors. The group could now see inside buildings, not having been able to before thanks to the lack of light.

And Rina was still in the car, completely unharmed.

"Oh! Yes, we got it!" she cheers, laughing as she sighs in relief.

"Christ..." Seymour trails off, being unable to hold back a few chuckles himself.

"Oh thank god." Nicholas laughs as well.

Hoshiko just broke out into happy giggles.

For a solid five minutes, the four said not a word to each other, instead reveling in their success with relieved laughter. It felt like it had been forever since they last laughed like this, and they felt the stress and anxiety dripping away.

"Haha, oh man." Nicholas wipes away a tear. "We got it. We're safe."

"We're makin' progress." Seymour smiles. "One down, three to go."

"That, that feels good!" Hoshiko says, still laughing. "It's like... maybe we'll actually get out of here!"

"Of course we will." Nicholas says, turning to look Hoshiko in the eye with a genuine smile. "Look, listen to me, all of you. As long as my heart's still beating and I've got air in my lungs, I'm gonna try to get us the hell out of this shithole."

"Hope you're not planning on doing that alone." Seymour says, lightly punching Nicholas in the arm.

"Me too." Rina says.

"Me three- um, four?" Hoshiko agrees as well.

"Alright. We're all gonna get out of here, okay? We're in this together." Nicholas says. He was a bit surprised at the sudden confidence of them, but it was a pleasant surprise.

A chorus of "Yeah!"s and other agreements rang out from the other three, before a few more chuckles and laughs come from them.

"The next riddle's locked." Rina then says, "Looks like we can't keep going for now."

"That's fine," Nicholas shakes his head, "We can do this again later."

"I'm confused, though." Hoshiko says, putting a finger to her chin in thought.

"Hmm?" Rina hums.

"Why did Monokuma let us know about this Future Foundation? And why they're so bad? Are they even _real?_" Hoshiko questions.

"Yeah... and what's the deal with these 'Superiors'?" Rina asks.

"I don't know... there's too many questions, and frankly, I don't care enough." Nicholas says. "Bigger problems right now."

The adrenaline and laughter of the last few minutes distracted Nicholas from another glaring problem. Once again, he felt another flash of pain in his head.

_Goddammit, again?_

"Argh," he grunts, putting a hand up to his head.

"Nick?" Seymour raises a brow. "You okay?"

"Yeah... shit, that one was bad." Nicholas says, worriedly. "I'm fine. It was another headache."

"Are you sick?" Rina asks.

"Doubt it." Nicholas shakes his head.

"It's the same one we had." Seymour says to Rina, before turning to Hoshiko. "Hey. Hoshiko. You been getting any headaches?"

"Hmm..." Hoshiko puts a finger to her mouth, in thought. "Not really?"

"Yes or no."

"Um... yes, then." Hoshiko says, thoughtfully. "We tried going upstairs in the hospital but it was too dark so we left... and I guess my head kind of hurt. It was weird though, after we came outside it was fine..."

"The hell did that fucking bear do to us...?" Seymour mutters.

A few minutes of silence follow. Nicholas was still getting aftershocks of pain, oddly enough. _This never happened before,_ he thought, _was I onto something big just now? Is it about the Superiors?_

"Hey." Nicholas breaks the short silence. "Was there a library anywhere?"

"Yeah, I saw one. It's on the other road," Seymour says, gesturing behind them to the other entrance of the mall, where another road is located. "Go over there and turn left. Walking distance."

"You guys wanna take this car, then? I'm gonna go check it out." Nicholas says.

"What are you looking for?" Rina asks.

"I'm not even sure myself... a lot of things." Nicholas scratches his neck.

"Huh..."

"Alright, I'll take the wheel then." Seymour says, "Here. Take this."

Seymour reaches into the passenger door pocket, taking out a black umbrella. He offers it to Nicholas, who accepted it: the storm wasn't letting up any time soon. Nicholas gives one final nod to the group, before leaving the car and opening up the umbrella.

_I doubt I'm going to find anything... but I may as well try._

The sun was going down. According to Nicholas' ElectroID, it was nearing five o'clock. The Commander was reminded of the day before, and Monokuma's threat. In twenty-four hours everyone's families were to perish. And now, that's only an hour away. Sure, there _was_ a murder, but can they really trust Monokuma? Are everyone's families safe?

Nicholas shivered from the climbing speed of the winds and started making his way to the library, mind plagued with anxious thoughts and worries. It's nigh time he stopped doubting the existence of this game. It's for real. As much as he'd like to break the rules and escape, he doubts that's the best plan of action. He'd have to play by Monokuma's rules. The possibility of his family being dead was, well, a real one.

He'd just have to adapt.

Nicholas finds the two-floor library. Clearly it was an old building, judging by the cracks in the brick walls and the church-like design of it. A sign read 'LAS DESPAIR CITY'S LIBRARY'. _Well, it's not as redundant as the mall..._ Nicholas thought, before climbing up the steps and pushing open the heavy burgundy-colored doors.

The library was large in size. It was spacious, and had a warm, home-like feel to it with the brown carpeting, dark hardwood shelves, and the medium-bright lights. Nicholas enters, closing up his umbrella and looking around. Monokuma clearly did something to the students. Sudden and seemingly random headaches, gaps in memory, and who knows what else is coming? The only thing Nicholas could think to do is look for cures. He doubted there was anything. Even if Monokuma didn't purposely get rid of this information, what can you do for something like amnesia?

One of the aisles of bookshelves had a sign above it reading 'Health'. Nicholas figured this was his best bet and made way towards it, beginning his investigation.

...

_So basically, either I have a brain tumor, or a stroke._

_This is going to take a while._

Nicholas grabs a stack of books, sits down, and begins reading.

* * *

**One Hour Later**

* * *

"Nicholas? Is that you?"

The officer just wasn't having any luck in the library. All that he learned was to find some painkillers, and well... there wasn't a single book related to amnesia. Nicholas' attention was torn away from his book, as another student came in.

"Huh?" Nicholas looks up to the intruder. "Oh, hey. Uh, Zéphyrine, right?"

"Indeed." Zéphyrine replies, standing above Nicholas. "What are you here for?"

"Ah..." Nicholas glances around, noticing a book about brain patterns; a book he hoped would have information about amnesia. He quickly kicks it aside and stands up. "U-Uh. Not much. I've been getting a lot of headaches, so..."

"Oh?" Zéphyrine tilts her head ever so slightly. Judging by the pause, and analyzing eyes, she likely noticed Nicholas' hesitation. "Are you quite alright?"

"Yeah, yeah... just thought I'd look for the cause, you know?" Nicholas says, with a nervous laugh. Technically, he wasn't lying. "What about you, how come you're here?"

"I thought I'd come read, try to take my mind off things..." Zéphyrine replies. "Hm. You seem distressed, Nicholas."

_Ack, she actually caught that?_

"A little." Nicholas admits.

"Are you... confused? Unsure?" Zéphyrine asks.

"I mean... I guess." Nicholas nods.

"There were tables back there. Would you like me to give you a reading?" she offers.

"Reading? Er, I can read fine myself..." Nicholas says, confused.

"No, not like that." Zéphyrine smiles. "A tarot card reading."

"Oh. You mean like, fortune telling?" Nicholas asks, leaning against the bookshelf. He was interested. After all, Nicholas was a firm believer in destiny.

"Yes. It may answer some questions you have." Zéphyrine answers.

_A card reading, huh..._

"Why the hell not." Nicholas shrugs.

"Come." Zéphyrine smiles once more, turning the other direction and walking.

Nicholas follows. "I didn't know you could tell fortune."

"Well, it all started at a fair back in France." Zéphyrine explains, "I met a fortune teller who told me I had destiny on my side. I was destined for greatness, according to him."

"Wow." Nicholas says, impressed. "I guess he didn't call for this coming, huh?"

"...no, I suppose his readings may have predicted this." Zéphyrine says, voice quieting down.

"Huh...?"

With that, the two find a wooden table with chairs of the same material, sitting down. Zéphyrine reaches into one of the many pockets of her oversized grey jacket, taking out a box of tarot cards. She then opens the box and lets the deck fall out.

"Shuffle." she orders.

"Shuffle?" Nicholas questions.

"Yes. Shuffle."

"Oookay then."

Thanks to his brother dragging him along to poker night with the guys, Nicholas knew his way around a deck of cards. Logan taught him a few tricks, to which Nicholas attempted to execute now. A few cards _did_ go flying about, but after nervously grabbing them and shoving them back into the pile, Nicholas successfully shuffled the deck.

"I want you to take seven cards." Zéphyrine says. "Spread them out in a 'V' shape. Face down."

_She clearly knows what she's doing, huh?_

Nicholas follows the order, this time doing it properly and _not_ sending cards to the other side of the table.

"Flip them." comes Zéphyrine's next order.

Nicholas does so.

"All Major Arcanas..." Zéphyrine comments upon seeing the cards. "Okay. This first one is called The Magician."

Zéphyrine proceeds to explain Nicholas' cards. The very first one was called The Magician, and apparently represented his recent past-what got him into his current predicament. The card represented determination. Nicholas thought back, thinking what he could've been so determined to do. Was it getting into Hope's Peak? That's what he chalked it up to, anyways.

The second one was Death. Immediately Nicholas was frightened by the card, but Zéphyrine waved it off. "It's not what you think," she said. "Rather, it means whatever's happening right now is about to change you. You're going to come out of this a different person." _So, that means I survive this? Except I'm going to be someone different..._

The next card was upside down. Nicholas moved to fix it, but Zéphyrine stopped him. According to her explanation, when a card comes out upside down, it means either the opposite of its usual meaning, or the usual but amplified. "It's a reverse card," Zéphyrine said. This card is the one that showed Nicholas' future. It was The Tower, meaning bad changes are coming. Unfortunately, Nicholas didn't get the opposite meaning, and got the amplified instead. Some drastic, big changes are about to occur. _Shit,_ he thought.

Next up was The Emperor. The fourth spot in this spread was to show Nicholas what to do. The Emeror represented leadership, in a nutshell. Nicholas is to take leadership in order to get out of his situation and come out with success. "You are the Ultimate Commander, are you not?" Zéphyrine asked upon explaining this card. "This should be second nature for you."

Following that was The Devil. It explained external influences making the situation what it is. The Devil is a selfish someone, who's only there to collect something. Nicholas assumed whoever put them here is supposed to be The Devil, but who? Who would be so selfish? And what are they trying to collect?

The World was next. Supposedly, the sixth card is one's hopes and fears. The World is the end of a cycle, with clarity and happiness to follow. Clearly, this is what Nicholas was hoping for. Or is it what he was _fearing?_

The final card was none other than The Lovers. The final overview of the reading was in this seventh card, one final thing to say. The Lovers represents relationships. Not just romantic, platonic ones too. Zéphyrine helped explain by saying that maybe it meant Nicholas is going to build up some good relationships with people as time goes on. Maybe those people were the others who have been kidnapped?

"And that's your reading." Zéphyrine says, wrapping up. She takes the cards, beginning to put them back in the box.

"Well then... thank you." Nicholas nods, getting up from his chair. "That should help."

"No worries. Let me know whenever you want a reading." Zéphyrine replies. She puts the box of cards back in her jacket.

From there, Nicholas decides it's about time he got out of this library. His stomach was aching for food. _That's right, I didn't even eat today, did I? What time is it?_ He checks his ElectroID, which read about quarter after six in the afternoon. _God... I guess I need to get something in my stomach._

Nicholas picks up his closed umbrella, having left it lying on the leg of the table. "Hey, Zéphyrine. Want to get something to eat?"

"Oh? Is this a date?" Zéphyrine asks, slyly.

"Wh- I mean, I _was_ planning on asking the rest of the group, but..."

Zéphyrine chuckles. "You do that."

_Shot down...?_

Nicholas goes to the chat part of his ElectroID, typing out the first message of the group chat.

_Nicholas White: "Hey, everyone. It's about dinner time, anyone up for getting some food together?"_

_Beep beep_

Zéphyrine immediately gets a notification, from her own ElectroID. "Ah. I didn't know you could do that." she says, reading it.

"Neither did I, Seymour just showed it to me." Nicholas shrugs.

_Beep beep_

_Beep beep_

_Beep beep_

And thus, the notifications begin rolling in.

_Seymour West: "Of course. I haven't eaten all day"_

_Gabriel Stein: "ok"_

_Hoshiko Hanazawa: "yeah! where?"_

"Oh, that's a good question." Nicholas murmurs. "Where should we eat?"

"I believe there is a map on these things... indeed, here." Zéphyrine says, closing the group chat for the time being and opening up a map.

_So I guess I don't need those maps from the hotel? Christ, those things are so weird. Just another addition to the mysteries._ Nicholas thought, referring to how the new district was cleared up as it opened.

Nicholas comes up to Zéphyrine's side, taking a look. Most restaurants appeared to be in the downtown district. He recognized a few expensive chain restaurants, mostly being ones such as steakhouses, the Japanese ones where they make the food in front of you plus a show, and one that struck his eye was a pizzeria.

"Pizza?" Nicholas offers.

"Sounds good." Zéphyrine agrees.

_Nicholas White: "How about pizza? There's a pizzeria around the corner from the hotel."_

_Seymour West: "The one on 2nd Street?"_

"Huh. I didn't think to use the actual street names..." Nicholas mutters.

_Nicholas White: "I think so, yeah."_

_Hoshiko Hanazawa: "omg okay that will be fun"_

_Durion Pazuru: "these devices can text, too!? oh my goodness"_

_Hikaru Momoko: "nori is that u"_

_Durion Pazuru: "ye"_

_Hikaru Momoko: "hi nori"_

_Hikaru Momoko: "tennoyama's here she says hi too"_

_Daiki Tachibana: "Sounds like the date was a success?"_

_Hikari Tennoyama: ";)"_

_William Tricher: "Oh, we're going out to eat? When?"_

_Nicholas White: "Right now?"_

_Annie Meritua: "That sounds lovely. :)"_

"Operation Pizzeria is a go." Nicholas announces to Zéphyrine.

* * *

Of course, the rain refused to let up. The weather was rather random. At this rate, Nicholas figured he was going to get sick. He and Zéphyrine got into the public transport bus patrolling the second district, which made a few more stops and collected more students before heading to the downtown district.

"This is gonna be great. I love pizza." William says, leaning back in his seat.

"Forgive me, but... I forget your name." Zéphyrine says, in the seat next to Nicholas near the front.

"Ah, that's probably my fault. I'm not the most social guy," he shrugs, "My name's William. Ultimate Cheater."

"Ultimate Cheater...?" Ryoko, sitting a few rows behind with Shiori, says.

"Don't get into a relationship with this guy." Nicholas jokes.

"Hey!" William protests. "I've never cheated like _that..._"

"Um, how did you get a title like that?" Shiori asks.

"I cheated." William says simply. "Well, surprisingly enough, I didn't cheat into Hope's Peak. I cheated all my tests and Hope's Peak saw credit was due somewhere, so..."

"They gave it." Nicholas finishes.

William points at Nicholas, giving a knowing smile to confirm his thoughts.

"Wait a minute." Bert speaks up. He was sitting with Gabriel. "Did- did she just say something?"

"Wh-who?" Gabriel asks.

"Her!" Bert says, "The musician! Ah, what's her name-right, Shiori! Was that the first time I heard a peep out of her mouth!?"

"Probably..." Shiori says, with an embarrassed smile.

"Okay. That's it. Shiori, you're joining Gabriel." Bert says. "Your confidence levels must go up, too!"

"Huh? They're high enough..." Shiori says. Despite her words, it wasn't entirely certain if they really were that high.

"Not for me!" Bert says, balling his hand up into a fist to slam it on something. Only to realize there's nothing to slam it on. "Mmmm."

"I-I'm sorry." Shiori apologizes. "I shall try to socialize more."

"Hey, don't sweat it." William says, "I've barely said a word either."

Shiori smiles in response.

"Hey, Gabe." Nicholas says. "Thanks for those pictures earlier."

"Wh-wh-wh-_whaaa?_" Bert sputters. "Pictures!? Gabriel! What kind of pictures have you been sending him!?"

_Dear lord._

"What!?" Gabriel's eyes widen in surprise. "Th-they were from that room in the hospital! Wh-what did you think!?"

"Oh." Bert blinks. "Ooooh..."

"I sure didn't predict Nicholas and Gabriel to be in such a relationship..." Zéphyrine comments.

"Shush." Nicholas says, half-joking.

"He's not denying it." William grins.

"I am not in any sort of relationship other than friendship with Gabriel." Nicholas deadpans.

"Theeere we go." William laughs.

"I'm confused..." Gabriel mutters.

_Poor Gabriel._

A few minutes later, the bus comes to a stop in front of the hotel. Nicholas could already see a few people inside the lobby through the doors, coming out. The group in the bus pours out, ready to walk the rest of the way, but there was one complication.

The rain didn't stop and Nicholas was the only one with an umbrella.

They immediately run to take cover under the overhang where the entrance is. Sure, the pizzeria was only around the corner, but in the rain that's a bit of a distance. That one umbrella likely wasn't enough for seven people.

Tennoyama, Hikari, and Annie come out. "Eh? What're y'all doin' over here? Thought we were goin' for pizza?" Tennoyama asks.

"Well... we can't really get there..." Nicholas says. "Only one umbrella."

"Oh, that's a bit of a problem..." Annie says. "We have some though."

Tennoyama and Annie both had an umbrella. "We can prob'ly fit like three people under one umbrella. How many of us are there?" Tennoyama asks.

She doesn't wait for an answer before doing a headcount. "Oi, we got a problem. Three people, three umbrellas, so tha's nine people. But we got ten of us. One of us is goin' ta be soakin' wet."

Nicholas was about to sacrifice himself, but William cuts him off. "I shall take the rain. Don't worry about me... I will be okay." he says, purposefully being more dramatic than necessary.

"Alrighty then." Tennoyama says. "Groups! We need groups! Nick, yer comin' with me and Hikari."

_Great. I'm third wheeling._

The first group was Nicholas, Tennoyama, and Hikari. The second was Ryoko, Shiori, and Zéphyrine. Lastly was Bert, Gabriel, and Annie. Leaving William to be alone in the rain.

Nicholas gave a salute to William. "You're doing an honorable thing right now, soldier. They'd give you a medal if you were in the army."

"I thought you were a cop." William says bluntly.

"...hey, same thing."

The trios finally move out. Tennoyama takes the middle spot, holding up their umbrella as her group is huddled together tightly. "This isn't awkward at all." Nicholas says with nothing but pure sarcasm leaking from his voice, as his side grinds with Tennoyama's.

"Of course not!" Tennoyama announces. "This will only strengthen our bond."

"After what we just did, I didn't know our bond could get any stronger..." Hikaru comments.

_Oh my god, why._

"Well, after this we can always try for making it even stronger." Tennoyama says, turning to Hikaru and wiggling her eyebrow.

"Are you guys gonna start making out while we're trying to eat our pizza?" Nicholas sighs.

"Prob'ly."

"Yeah."

"Goddammit."

The other groups weren't faring so much better.

"Gabe! What're you doing!? Hold up the umbrella!" Bert complains.

"I-I'm sorry!" Gabriel apologizes. The umbrella shook in his hands thanks to the heavy winds.

"You shouldn't be so harsh on him." Annie frowns.

"You know what? You are _absolutely_ right." Bert says. "Gabriel, I apologize for my actions."

"Um, th-thanks?"

"What kind of pizza are you going to get, Shiori?" Ryoko asks the member of her group on her left. Ryoko herself was holding the umbrella.

"Umm... cheese sounds good." Shiori says. "How about you?"

"I'm not quite sure... who's even making the pizza?" Ryoko asks, "I doubt the chefs are still here."

"N-Not me." Shiori says.

"Perhaps this will have to be a group effort." Zéphyrine says, "Or Monokuma will make it for us."

"I know I'm not eating if Monokuma makes it." William comments, coming up beside the group.

"Oh, hello. How are you holding up?" Zéphyrine asks.

"I'm probably gonna have a cold by the time we get back to the hotel." William scratches his head.

"My apologies. Would you like to switch places?" Zéphyrine offers.

"I'm good. I wouldn't do that to a girl." William smiles.

"So you'd do it to a male, then?" Ryoko asks. "That's quite sexist."

"What-wait, that's not what I meant!"

Soon enough, the ten students make it to the pizzeria together. For a pizza joint, it was rather large and elegant. The carpet was a deep red, with tablecloths being the same, only shades lighter. The other five were sitting at a long table straight ahead, past a podium with a sign reading 'please wait to be seated' and some steps going down. As Nicholas approaches, he notices the table is already set. Only thing that's missing is the pizza itself.

"Hey, everyone's here!" Rina says, "Welcome, guys."

"Thank you, thank you..." Nicholas nods, taking a seat across from her and Seymour. Tennoyama sits on his right with Hikari on hers, with a soaked William taking Nicholas' left. "How come the table's already set? None of the others are?"

"Monokuma saw that conversation in the group chat, apparently. He's making the food for us." Rina explains.

"You saw him?" Nicholas asks, surprised.

"Yeah, he just kind of showed up on us out of the blue in a cute little chef hat," Rina says, "said he'll prepare the food."

"Aaaand I'm not eating." William says.

"Oh! You're soaked! What happened?" Rina asks William.

"Wasn't enough umbrella. I sacrificed my dryness for the others." he explains.

"It was a very noble thing to do. We give you our thanks." Nicholas nods, being a bit overdramatic as well.

"My pleasure." William replies.

Nicholas takes a look around the table. He counts exactly fifteen plates, one for each of the surviving students. He frowns. That wasn't enough.

"Where's Monokuma?" he asks.

"In the kitchen, over there. Why?" Seymour answers.

"I need to make a request." Nicholas says. "Thank you."

He gets up. Seymour pointed towards a hallway near their table, to which Nicholas went down. In it were bathrooms, and another door reading 'kitchen'. Nicholas goes right on in.

"Whhhhaaaaa_aaaaaa!?_"

Monokuma immediately lets out a scream. He dashes out from some unseen part of the kitchen and to the door. "Nicholas! What are you doing!? You can't come in here! The food's not ready yet, get out!"

He attempts pushing Nicholas out, but his tiny height and lack of weight barely made the actual human budge an inch. "Wait! Monokuma. I want to make a request."

"No requests! Get out!"

"Please!? It's not even a food thing!"

"Geeeet ouuuut!"

"It'll be quick!"

"Okay! Fine! What is it!?" Monokuma shouts.

"I-I just want you to bring two extra plates, okay? Empty plates. That's all." Nicholas says, putting his hands up in an attempt to show he means no harm. It _was_ against the rules to hurt Monokuma, but still.

"What kind of stupid... okay, fine, whatever." Monokuma sighs. "Now can you get out!?"

"Yeah, yeah! Jeez. Bye." Nicholas says, leaving.

The next twenty minutes or so was spent with the group engaging in small talk. The buzz of conversation was accompanied with the occasional laughter, as the students finally began to bond together as one. What they found particularly odd however, was the odd sense of familiarity in it all. Not just the event, but the conversations. The topics rang a bell. Deja vu. Alas, nobody brought it up. Each of them thought it was just themselves, and of course, thought it was nothing.

"...oh, it's nothing really. When I was in elementary, I grew rather fond of literature. I began writing poems at a level people said were far above a young child's, and they began becoming popular in middle school..." Ryoko says, recalling the events of her Ultimate title with a smile. "And now, here we are."

"Interesting." William says, "You all have such interesting stories. Anyone want to hear mine?"

"S-...Sure." Gabriel nods, with a slight smile himself. Bert gave him a small pat on the back, proud that he was putting himself into conversation.

"I cheated all my tests!" William exclaims. "That's about it."

"Hey, Nick. How about you? What's the story behind your Ultimate, hmm?" Nori then asks.

Nicholas chuckles. "That's classified."

"Oh, come on! Who's listening, Monokuma? Who gives a damn?" Nori insists.

"Yeah, let's hear it!" Rina agrees.

_Meh... I guess there's no harm._

"Well, it should be obvious I'm a cop, right? I haven't exactly said what kind yet..." Nicholas starts. "I work in counter-terrorism."

"Woah." Rina says, "You're the... Commander, right?"

"Yeah. I give the orders, and boots on the ground fills 'em out. My brother's one of those 'boots on the ground'." Nicholas explains.

"My brother was kinda like you, then." Rina says, a hint of a solemn tone in her voice. "He was the Ultimate Battle Strategist."

"Heh, I'd like to play him in a game of chess." Nicholas jokes, not catching on her usage of the word _'was'_.

"That... might be a bit hard to do." Rina replies. Judging by the way her eyes darted away, she appeared to be a bit uncomfortable.

_Huh?_

"Hey, assholes! Make way!"

A squeaky voice makes its way into the conversation as Monokuma-no, wait.

"What the hell?" Nicholas asks, blinking.

Not Monokuma.

A _dozen_ Monokumas.

The bunch of tiny robots dashed out of the kitchen, all holding something in their paws. They rushed to put their things on the table; which included a few different types of pizzas, and beverages such as water, juice, and soda. It was rather amusing, watching the little machines work so hard to feed the students. Most of the Monokumas ran out the front door, but one last Monokuma remained.

"Here's your stupid empty plates, Nick." he said, coming up to his side. As requested, Monokuma carried two empty plates.

"Can you put them on the table, please?" Nicholas asks.

"Wh- where!? For who!?" Monokuma exclaims.

"Just do it!"

"Fine!"

The bear finally set the two dishes, one for two of the several extra empty seats. _Good..._

"Gotta agree with the bear on this one, Nick, who are those for?" Seymour asks.

Nicholas lets out a deep breath. "For Hibiki and Kinzoku."

The officer stands up. "Alright, so... I just wanna say a few words." Nicholas takes another deep breath. Ever since Zéphyrine's reading told him to take leadership, he'd been planning this.

"We lost two friends today." Nicholas says, crossing his arms out in front of him. "Hibiki Yukata and Kinzoku Mitsuko. Innocent, poor souls, taken out of our lives before we could even get to know them. All because of this godforsaken game we've been forced to be a part of. It's already been, what, three days since we got here? We don't know how many more days we'll be here. We don't know if this is going to happen again. There's a new reality staring us in the face, and that's the fact that... well, the end is closer than we thought it was. Right around the corner. But we're only teenagers. We were convinced we still had the rest of our lives waiting for us. Still another seventy years left. That might not be the case anymore."

Nicholas breaks for a moment, sighing in thought. His eyes travel downward, before going right back into his speech. "I don't care how close that ending is. You know what we can do? As humans? Adapt. If we must adapt, then so be it. So I just want to say this: we can't let the forces of despair take us over. It doesn't matter how short our lives will be from here on out, we can still live it out. And that's what we're gonna do. Of course, I will not stop trying to get us out of here, but we can't let our losses and our situation to consume us. We'll be okay, guys."

Nicholas goes silent. "Thanks." he says, before sitting down. The rest of the table is quiet as well, mulling over his words.

"I'll be damned if I let despair consume me." Seymour says, nothing but determination in his voice. He stands up, putting his hands on the red tablecloth, looking around at the others. "You know what? I'm not dying any time soon. I haven't come this far to stumble now. I want you all to do the same. We need to fight through this."

"There cannot be any more murders." Annie is the next one to speak. She stands up. "Nicholas is right. We are but teenagers. High school teenagers. We're merely _children._ We still have our lives to live, do we not? Don't you all want to get back to them?"

"Our families are still out there." Ryoko follows the movement of the others. "We need to return to them. The loved ones we've left behind. We cannot simply disappear on them."

"Hey! You guys can't do my job without me! I'm the Motivational Speaker here... we can do it, guys! Together!"

"We'll get out of this city! I still have mountains to ski..."

"Shiori didn't write me a song to play yet!"

"Wh-wha? I'm writing you a song?"

"We will win." Nicholas grins, standing right back up. "For Hibiki and Kinzoku."

"For Hibiki and Kinzoku!" Hikaru cheers.

"For Hibiki 'n Kinzoku!" Tennoyama does so as well.

"For Hibiki and Kinzoku." Seymour says, nodding.

"For... those guys, yeah!" Nori pumps a fist in the air.

The cheers go around the table before each of the fifteen have said their words.

Nicholas doesn't know if they will suffer any more losses.

But if there's one thing he knows now, it's this:

Monokuma will **not** win this game.

* * *

_"For Hibiki and Kinzoku!"_

Kagome was watching with deep intent. It still being early in the morning back at Camp Hope, Kagome rested in his bed, watching from the pizzeria's surveillance cameras off a mini TV resting in his lap. It wasn't exactly a _bed,_ moreso a mattress bolted into the wall that lost its softness with a scratchy old blanket covering it, but who's paying attention to that?

_Of course. Natural born leader, Nicholas..._

His attention to the television was taken away by a few knocks at his door. "Ay, Kagome, you up?" Taichi's voice follows.

"Yeah. Come in." Kagome calls out.

Taichi enters his room. "Big news."

"What's up?" Kagome asks, turning his head to see an excited Taichi.

"Got into the new district's cameras. We found them." Taichi says, coming up to Kagome's bed with pictures in his hands.

Raising a brow, Kagome takes the pictures. It takes him a total of five solid seconds for a dozen realizations to smack him in the face.

_It's... Las Despair City?_

"Get the men ready," Kagome orders, "We need to get there A.S.A.P. This is worse than I thought..."

"Why?" Taichi asks.

"Because not only is The Executioner amongst them, but this confirms The Storyteller is too." Kagome explains, pushing the television aside and sitting up. "When there's The Storyteller, he will have _hundreds_ of Kuma soldiers behind him. He's the commander of Japan's Ultimate Despair, for god's sake."

"Oh, shit..." Taichi's eyes widen. "Then that's where the Future Foundation's going, too."

"...fuck." Kagome curses. "This is it. Get ready for war, we're leaving in two hours."

"We don't have nearly enough manpower to take down Ultimate Despair _and_ the Future Foundation." Taichi points out.

"I know. I was a Private Eye, Taichi, I have connections." Kagome retorts, "I know a guy."

"Oh my god." Taichi murmurs. "Okay. What do you want me to do?"

"Like I said, we're leaving in two hours. That's enough time for everyone to get cleaned up, fed, and ready to go. Meet me at the airfield at..." Kagome checks his watch, "8:45. Get Yuushi and Takeo, too."

"Got it." Taichi nods. With that final order, he leaves, closing the door to Kagome's room behind him.

_Here we go._

_It's time for war._

Kagome lights a cigarette.

* * *

[A/N: Ooooo. Shit's about to go down. Hope y'all are ready for this.

CaptainQuackin: Thanks! I've been trying to give Hikaru some more of the spotlight, my apologies if she hasn't been getting enough. :D

Saiynt: We have. The mosquito bites and I make quite a team. Thanks man, those vibes are exactly what I'm going for.

C'mon, only two reviews? Leave me some reviews guys!

Thanks for reading!]


	12. Chapter 9: Afterhours

My name is Kagome Kazuki.

Once upon a time, I was not much more than a student at the prestigous Hope's Peak Academy. I was the Ultimate Private Eye. It had a nice ring to it. The job's about as shady as it sounds, though. Lotta back-end deals, weird people. Dealt with the Yakuza far too many times. "Hey, go follow this guy for us," they'd say. "See what he's up to." That was my job, though. See what people are up to. I've been involved in some cases I wish I wasn't, but at the end of the day, I was making, what, hundred thousand yen a case? Not bad. Not bad at all.

By now, that may as well have been centuries ago.

The world changed so much in the past five years. You know who I am now? I'm workin' with a friend named Yuushi Hitaka as the leaders of a private military company called Faith. How the hell does that work? Going from smoking cigarettes in a stuffy apartment in western Tokyo to smoking cigarettes in military barracks while I cook up the next orders for the hundred or so soldiers next to me? There's barely a damn _trace _of what things used to be, anymore. Gotta say, I miss that shit.

So here I am, sitting in our very own airship. How the fuck did we get an airship? This is military-grade equipment. Yeah, sure, _we're_ military, but it's not like we're official or anythin'. Government didn't approve us. There _is_ no goverment. Whole world fell into anarchy. Still don't know how we got our hands on all the crap we have. Well, anyways. There I am, sittin' down, I'm lookin' out the window. We're thirty-thousand feet in the air in this stupidly big _airship_, sun's blazin' outside. Watch says it's eleven o'clock. Been on here for what, hour and a half now? Something like that. I just got done briefing the boys.

We're headin' out to this old city in Japan. God knows what it was before, but ever since shit fell apart, it became a gold mine for Ultimate Despair. Them's the bad guys runnin' around. I've already been involved in a few rescue operations in Las Despair City, yeah that's what they call it-don't ask me. No matter what happens, the city refuses to give up. There was another game nearby, in what _used_ to be Las Despair City, till the Future Foundation dropped a nuke on it. That's how bad it was. They burned all documents on it and swallowed the ashes, but we know what happened. The members of Ultimate Despair, Kumas we call them, weren't the only enemies there. We don't know if they were hallucinating or what, but when the kids started hearing the _whispers..._

That was about two years ago. Fast forward to now, another city has the name Las Despair City. They just had to keep the legacy, y'know? Crazy bastards. This is going to be bad, though. Two of our enemies are gonna be there. Future Foundation and Ultimate Despair. Why's the Future Foundation our enemy, you ask? Well, you shoulda seen the look on Hitaka's face when he found out the one pulling the strings behind his game was a member of Future Foundation, the people who's been tryin' to save us from Despair. Time went on and they became more and more corrupt. Started fallin' to despair, made a bad rep for 'emselves. So Hitaka came and said, "alright screw that, I'm making my own military." And here we are, doing what the Future Foundation can't.

Another question you might have is, "how the fuck do you plan on taking out both the Future Foundation and Ultimate Despair?" Good question. Answer is: I don't. No way in hell. We have trained soldiers, but we ain't some kinda elite force or something. It's situations like this where we call in the cavalary.

"Kagome." Speak of the devil. I'm taken out of my thoughts by Hitaka himself. See, the seats are set up so the ones along the walls have another set of seats facing them directly, and I'm sitting on a wall seat. Hitaka comes and sits across from me.

"Where the hell have you been?" I ask.

"I just got off the phone with your guy." Hitaka replies.

"Oh, you talked to that weirdo?" I ask, this is gonna be good. "Whatcha think of 'im?"

"Well, first impressions were not so great." he deadpans, "Using a voice changer _and_ refusing to give his identity?"

"Doesn't matter who he is. I trust him." I say.

"Right. Well, he's on board. We have to pick him up though, he doesn't have a way to get there." Hitaka explains.

_Pah, yes he does. Just doesn't wanna reveal it yet._ I think to myself.

"He say where he is?" I ask.

"Brazil. What's he doing in South America?" Hitaka says.

"Look, don't ask me. You know how in the superhero comics there's always those vigilantes, they got a secret identity and they just run around swingin' the hammer of justice where they can? That's who this guy is. He prob'ly found another game down there." I say. Yeah, the cavalry's a bit weird.

"Right." Hitaka sighs. "I told the pilot to turn around, we're heading to Brazil now."

"Good." I nod.

"I need to ask, though... just who is this guy? Why is he the only one who can help us?" Hitaka asks, clearly confused.

"...Okay, you remember the old Las Despair City? The first one?" I start.

"The one that got nuked?"

"Exactly." I clarify. "You must remember Fujimoto Takeshi, then."

"...yes?" Hitaka says. He seemed a bit uncomfortable. Makes sense, Takeshi has a bit of a reputation himself.

"He used to be a friend of his. Future Foundation." I continue, "Until he became a Superior, and they hunted him down. Shit happened between 'em, he hates Takeshi, and he's been helping people all around."

"Shit, another Superior..." Hitaka mutters.

"No, he's not on Despair's side. He's no terrorist." I explain.

"This is messed up." Hitaka shakes his head. "I'm just... gonna rest, now. Screw this."

True. Too much crap's going on. Hitaka lies down on the row of seats, resting his head on the red wire chairs. These things are uncomfortable enough to sit on, but sleeping on them? Hitaka's on a whole other planet.

Oh, what's that? You have questions?

Takeshi, the Superiors?

That's a story for another day.

* * *

**Ding, dong, ding, dong.**

"Time for bed, children! Get some rest!"

And so falls the curtain on another day. For The Storyteller and Suzuki Mihane, things were just getting started.

"Well, Mihane? Give me some updates, girl." The Storyteller requests. He lies on the bed of the motel room he and Mihane were sharing. Of course, in the rooms around them were the kidnapees of the motive earlier given out.

Mihane leans against the ripped, worn out beige wallpaper near the right-hand corner opposite of the bed. In the actual corner itself is a hollow wooden desk, where shelves one day may have rested. On it, plugged into the wall, is a grey laptop. Mihane looks at the screen. "Foundation's still on the move. ETA hasn't changed yet." she says, voice near void of emotion.

"A bit disappointing, I must say." The Storyteller says, a saddened tone present in his voice. "What was it? Two weeks?"

"Yeah, something like that." Mihane confirms. "Also, there's activity from that C-130 of Faith... they were coming here, until they turned around and started going to South America."

"Mmm... we'll have to work faster, then. I want these kids to go through their round of despair before the army comes in." The Storyteller says.

"Are you admitting defeat...?" Mihane asks, hesitantly.

"What? I'd never do that. I don't do that anymore." The Storyteller grumbles.

"We can just fight the Foundation off, you know." Mihane says, crossing her arms.

"We don't know what they're coming at us with... you've seen the kind of hardware they have, no?" The Storyteller says, staring at the ceiling from underneath his mask. "When they hit the game's over, Mihane."

"You're awfully submissive all of a sudden." Mihane mutters. "You know who that reminds me of?"

"Hmm?" The Storyteller inquires.

"Arata."

"...excuuuse me?" The Storyteller asks, after a pause. "Didn't I tell you not to say that name?"

"I'm just saying." Mihane shrugs. "Should I call in some help anyway?"

The Storyteller doesn't reply for a moment. Then suddenly, he springs up. "Of course! Bring in as many Kumas as you can! Let's make this the biggest war this side of Japan's ever seen!"

"Right away. Anything else?"

"Yes. Contact the Executioner. I want the next motive ready to go by tomorrow evening." The Storyteller says. "And uh... I guess we're gonna have to hit Protocooool... which one was it?"

"Which Protocol, sir?" Mihane asks.

"You know which one. The big bad one."

"That was... Protocol 6, sir."

"Lovely. When everyone comes in, war's gonna happen anyway, so screw it. Inform the Executioner-Protocol 6 will be in play."

"Of course."

* * *

_Christ. What time is it?_

_..._

_One in the morning. Of course._

_..._

_I can't sleep..._

_Maybe I should go get some food, or water, or something._

_I'll take a walk outside, actually..._

_..._

_Looks like the rain stopped for now. I'm bringing my jacket anyway. The weather is far too unpredictable._

_Should I even go outside, actually? I wonder if it's dangerous. Probably is, but, meh._

_..._

_Oh. Someone's there?_

Nicholas stands in the dark hallway in the hotel where the students' rooms were. He's dressed in charcoal grey trackpants and a thin black jacket, having planned on going outside. The officer notices a fellow student standing at the windows, looking out at the city.

"It's late," he says, announcing his presence as he approaches the student. "How come you're still up?"

They turn in surprise, revealing their identity to be Annie. "Oh, Nicholas." she smiles, "You scared me there... I'm afraid I can't sleep."

_You too, huh?_

"Why are you out, may I ask?" Annie questions.

"Can't sleep." Nicholas says.

"Ah." Annie nods.

The two share a quiet moment, looking out onto the desolate city streets. Being Tokyo born, Nicholas just found it so _creepy._ The lack of lights, music, people... even late into the night, the city was always bustling with activity.

"It's nothing like Tokyo." Annie says, practically reading Nicholas' thoughts. "It's so quiet."

"You're from Tokyo too?" Nicholas asks. _That's right. Of course she'd be from Tokyo, we were supposed to go to the same school..._

"Indeed." she nods, "It wasn't how I thought it'd be..."

"What do you mean?"

"I used to be homeschooled." Annie explains. "I never went outside much... my parents rarely argued, I used to think things like conflict were but a fairytale. When I got older, I started exploring outside more... the first thing I saw was a couple arguing."

"Oh, man... about what?" Nicholas crosses his arms, listening to Annie's story.

"I'm not sure... as soon as I saw them, I intervened." Annie recalls. "It was at a bus stop. I approached them, wanting to stop the argument. Of course, they yelled at me, but I persisted... I kept calm and defused the situation."

"That where Ultimate Pacifist comes from?"

Another smile appears on Annie's face. "Yes."

"We could use someone like you on the force." Nicholas smiles as well.

"Ah... what was it you said at the pizzeria, earlier? You worked as counter-terrorism?" Annie asks.

Nicholas nods. "Little weird for someone my age, huh?"

"Mm, you are a Hope's Peak student." Annie says, "It's a bit more plausible that way."

"Yeah... you can probably find my whole family at the Tokyo Police Department." Nicholas replies. "My brothers, my parents..."

"Even your parents?" Annie asks.

"Well, not quite. My father isn't. He's in politics, thinks he can be the next Prime Minister. My mom doesn't have a big job at the department, but that's where my brothers and I step in."

"I see... your brothers do the same as you?"

"Logan and I are Special Unit. I give orders, he fills them out on the ground. Then there's Ryan..." Nicholas blinks. "Not even I know much about him. He's a good few years older than us, last I heard he was a detective, but..."

"But?" Annie prompts.

"That's right... I had him look into something for me." Nicholas says, referring to the email. He decides not to mention it for now. "I never heard from him since. I guess he didn't find anything."

"My apologies." Annie says.

Silence ensues.

For a while, it remains. Annie eventually breaks it, however. "Ah. I think I'm going to try going back to sleep now, Nicholas."

"Alright. Night, Annie." Nicholas nods, sending her off.

Before she leaves, Annie puts a hand on Nicholas' arm. He turns to face her. "Eh?"

"Stay strong, Nicholas. We shall make it through this wretched game." she says. "Good night."

Nicholas nods again. "Yeah."

Annie returns to her room, leaving Nicholas alone.

_..._

_It's quarter after one. I doubt I'm going to sleep anytime soon._

_Wait, I never got to finish exploring the second district. There has to be something else of interest, no?_

_Yeah, I'll go check it out right now. I need to use every hour I can._

_..._

_Holy crap. A firing range? When there's a firing range, there's usually guns..._

_Guess that's first on the list._

_..._

_It's so quiet out here. Empty. I'm the only one on the road right now. I used to think Tokyo was too crowded, but... I miss it. I miss it so much. And what's it been, three days? Christ, Monokuma's already got me feeling despair._

_No, snap out of it Nick. You have to be there for the others. You're a cop, for god's sakes. If we lose anyone else I'll lose my badge..._

_I hate responsibility._

_..._

Moonlight shined on the desolate asphalt as Nicholas crosses the bridge into the next district. He drove at a comfortable pace in the sports car Tennoyama picked when they went into the new district for the first time. Following the map on his ElectroID, Nicholas made it to the Las Despair City Firing Range.

A dim yellow light from the ceiling illuminated the medium-sized room, showing Nicholas the weapons inside. Confirming his fears, firearms of all kinds were inside. _Aw, crap. This isn't good._ Though, at the same time, it kind of was. For Nicholas. As much as he wanted to say nobody will kill again, Kinzoku still did. And it could happen again. Self-defense was in order.

Nicholas found his weapon of choice. The Beretta Pico, a tiny self-defense pistol ready to fire .380 ACP rounds. This was the handgun he brought to Hope's Peak that first day. He takes it, deciding to load it up and pocket it, of course ensuring the safety was engaged. As much as Nicholas wished he didn't need it, better safe than sorry. The Pico just wasn't enough for him, however.

A Pneu Dart Model 179B tranquilizer gun _was._ He'd rather keep things non-lethal. Grabbing a handful of darts, he put the pistol in his jacket pocket.

_I really hope I don't need to use these._

Nicholas notices a door in the back. Opening it, he finds the actual range part of the building. There were ten lanes, and a wide open space in front of them, with targets set up. There were assorted white-and-grey boxes of ammunition, as well. _White-and-grey? I hope that's not important._

The officer approaches a lane, looking down the open space. A sense of familiarity rushed over him. Was it because of the times he's been to firing ranges with Logan before? No, that doesn't sound right. Nicholas notices strain on his brain, again. _Another headache... These must be related to my lost memories. I guess my damned amnesia also included a firing range._

That sense of familiarity was rather uncomfortable. Nicholas left the firing range moments later.

Nicholas wanders around. There's a city hall, but the door's locked. A grocery store, too-a brief search proved there was nothing of interest in there. He through the mall's parking lot and gets on the opposite road, driving until he saw the hospital. Nicholas remembers Hoshiko's words; the second floor of the hospital was blacked out and they didn't get to investigate, plus she had one of those headaches. Nicholas' last one hadn't entirely gone away, but the lights should be on now, right? Might as well go check it out.

_I hope this isn't a bad idea._

_..._

_Oh, a vending machine. I don't have any change though. No one should have any... so why is this here? Maybe it's-_

_It's free._

Shrugging, Nicholas pockets the chocolate bar he accidentally made the vending machine crap out. The hospital's lights were on, and everything seemed fine. He assumed when Hoshiko went they already found everything on the first floor, so he went straight upstairs after coming out of the vending machine room.

He was greeted with the twisting white and blue hallways of your everyday hospital. Signs on the walls and hanging from the ceiling had directions on where room numbers were. The current straight hallway apparently had rooms 201 to 220. At the end near room 220 was another staircase, which like the one Nicholas just climbed up, only went downstairs. After turning left; the only possible way, a sign mentioned that elevators were straight ahead, and there were a hell of a lot of turns from there.

In the middle of the floor, there were four rooms at each corner, though there were hallways allowing one to go around or in between them. After going straight ahead of the rooms, there was a long hallway going left and right much like the one at the beginning of the floor-though this one was longer. There were three elevators on the wall, and two hallways on the left side, and two other hallways on the right. According to the map on Nicholas' ElectroID, anyway.

_Huh. That's odd, what's that supposed to be?_

While looking at the map, Nicholas saw two little circles with a pixelated face in them, both inside the hospital. One was a crude drawing of _himself,_ accompanied with his own name. And the other-

"Nicholas?"

"William!"

-was a sprite drawing of none other than William Tricher. Up the stairs came the owner of that name himself, the Ultimate Cheater. Nicholas whipped around to face him, instinctively reaching into his pocket for one of the weapons he had, but rested upon seeing William.

"I'm not here to kill you, I swear on my life." he says, putting his hands up to show no harm. "Apparently, the maps on these ElectroIDs tell you where everyone is, and I saw you all the way out here, so..."

"So you decided to come follow me?" Nicholas asks.

"I mean, I _could've_ just texted you, but... I was bored, man." William shrugs. "Wanted to see what you were up to."

"Investigating, if you must know." Nicholas explains.

"Ahh... I tried coming up here earlier, but the lights were off. Good thinking, come investigate with the power on." William nods, walking ahead of Nicholas. If the beginning of the floor made the shape of an upside down 'T', William stood before the longer part of that 'T'.

"You're more than welcome to come look with me, but I'm warning you now, I don't know what we're gonna find here." Nicholas says, pocketing his hands as he comes up next to William. "Hoshiko said she had a headache when she first came up here."

"Eh, it's probably nothing." William waved it off. "Maybe it's just stress or something, I've been getting headaches too."

_Meh. Good point..._

"Do me a favor..." Nicholas says, as the two start moving. "Explain your headaches."

"What? You _do_ know what a headache feels like, right?" William asks, half-jokingly. "Like... I don't know, my head hurts, I take an Advil, and-"

"No, no, yeah I know what a headache feels like. Trust me." Nicholas shakes his head. "We've been getting some really weird ones. Wait, let me ask you another question."

"Shoot." William replies.

"Have you noticed any gaps in your memory?" Nicholas asks.

"Whaaat? No. Have _you?_" William asks it right back.

"Quite a bit." Nicholas scratches his neck. "Whenever I come across something possibly related to my missing memories, I get this... flash of pain, like lightning on the ground, just in my head. Seymour and Rina had something like that in the mall this afternoon."

"Flash of pain... that sounds familiar." William crosses his arms. "Huh. Maybe this is a little more complicated than I thought."

"Chances are, it is."

By now, Nicholas and William crossed the hallway and were in the main part of the floor. There were two rooms in front of them and two rooms behind them, though they could also go around them and along the walls. According to the signs on the doors, the rooms were: a waiting room, an operating room, delievery room (William asked if the students were ever going to need this room, prompting Nicholas to deliver him a slap to the face), and a nursery room. Along the walls were simply rooms with multiple beds for different patients to stay in, though one of the rooms was apparently a closet for housekeeping. Straight ahead were four more hallways, so they knew this wasn't it for that floor.

Quick searches through the hospital's rooms proved fruitless. There were four beds a room, all with their own curtains to cut them off from the other patients. Each bed had a table and a TV to watch. Oddly enough-it was all clean, and in pristine edition. Who's cleaning this place?

Housekeeping was a somewhat dangerous room. At first glance, it seemed fine. Broom in the corner, a bucket, water and soap accompanied with several different cleaning supplies on the shelf, and that was about it. What was concerning, were the cleaning supplies themselves. Judging by the numerous amounts of warnings on the bottles, it was clear they weren't simply for cleaning. Acidic, explosive, poisonous, and corrosive were the least to be worried about. Of course, each one had a Monokuma theme. Such as the poison symbol being a Monokuma head and crossbones rather than a _skull_ and crossbones.

"You know, I wasn't going to be worried about these until I saw the little Monokuma heads..." William muses, leaning in to get a better look at a certain bottle with what must've been about a dozen different warnings.

"Gotta be worried about everything around here." Nicholas frowns.

Moving on. The delivery room had a single bed and several machines placed around it, and not much else. It was comfortable, at least. William just couldn't help but let a few snickers escape, which was followed by a deep sigh from Nicholas. Next up was the nursery, which was empty of anything of interest. Just like the rest of the rooms so far, it was perfectly clean. The utter silence and emptiness was rather eerie.

After leaving, Nicholas walked up to the door of the operation room. His hand reached for the handle, but to reasons unknown to him, he hesitated.

"Eh? Nick, open the door." William says, confused.

He would, but Nicholas couldn't shake the sudden feeling of dread filling him. Anxiety. _Familiarity._

"Hey, I- I don't know about this one." Nicholas says, backing away.

Here comes the headache. Striking like lightning, Nicholas' brain suddenly starting straining itself to remember something. William was about to say something, but Nicholas put up a hand to signal for him to keep his mouth shut, before closing his eyes-he had a grasp on his memories.

Blood.

He saw blood.

Whispers.

"...icholas? Nick? Nicholas!"

Nicholas ears came back into focus at the sound of William calling out to him. The vague memory ended, and Nicholas was back at the hospital. A concerned William stood in front of him, looking at him with raised eyebrows over baby blue eyes.

"You... didn't get that?" Nicholas asks, wearily.

"Didn't get _what?_ Dude, what's goin' on with you?" William asks.

"Memories. I- I just got one of my memories back." Nicholas says, emerald eyes of his own darting to the ground as he paces around in a circle, trying to regain every last piece of the memory.

"Wait. You mean, like, you just had one of those flashes of pain." William says, pointing at Nicholas. "Holy crap, what did you see?"

"I think it's this room." Nicholas replies, looking up to the door. "I saw blood. I heard someone talking... whispers. They were... ah, goddammit... I don't know what they were saying, but, they sound distressed. And _familiar._"

"Familiar? Familiar how? You know who said them?"

"No. At least, I don't think so. I don't know-"

"Nicholas..." William cuts him off. "Am I the only one hearing that right now?"

_Huh?_

Nicholas focuses his hearing on anything else in the room.

And he hears _them._

The distressed cries of the whispers.

Like a wave of water slowly consuming the two, the whispers Nicholas heard in his memories suddenly came to life. William was hearing them for the first time. Nicholas' thoughts go back to Seymour's video, when he was in the mall and heard the whispers as well. The audio was distorted to the point Nicholas couldn't hear the whispers in the slightest, but he would bet this is what they sounded like.

"Oh my god. Is... this what you're talking about?" William asks, eyes widening. He looks around, no doubt for some kind of place where they could be coming from.

"...Yeah. This is it. The whispers." Nicholas blinks, looking around as well.

"Who's out there!?" William shouts.

Nicholas' dread only rose from there. Carefully, he reached into his jacket, feeling around for a specific object. His hand came into contact with the plastic handle, and he slowly took it out.

Holding his Beretta handgun down at his side, Nicholas raised his voice too. "Where are you!? Come out!"

"Is- is that a gun!?" William backed away in fear. "What the hell man!?"

"Self-defense! If I wanted to kill you I'd pick a bigger one." Nicholas says.

"Okay, even if whoever's whispering comes out, what are you gonna do?" William asks.

"Well, first I decide if they're a threat. Then if it turns out they _are,_ I neutralize them." Nicholas retorts.

"Wha- neutralize? So if it's another student messing with us and you kill them, you know we gotta go through another trial, right? And I'll have to call you out..." William trails off. "Unless."

"William. Stay with me. I'm on your side, you know that. I will not kill you." Nicholas reassures.

"You better be right..."

The whispers continued. In the jumbled mess of words, they could make out a few.

_Help. Stop. No. Die. Death. Despair._

"God. What do they want?" William asks, in a hushed tone.

"Help...?" Nicholas suggests. "I don't know."

"Should we check out this room? I have to say, I don't have the best feeling about it anymore..." William swallows.

"Look. You can leave if you like, I came here to investigate. I'm gonna finish." Nicholas says, letting a deep breath out after. His Beretta Pico was trained on the door in his right hand, and his left hand was on the doorknob. "You doing this or not?"

"If I go in here with you and I die, I swear I will haunt you." William sighs.

"What if I die too?" Nicholas jokes.

"I'll die again. Go into the next level of the afterlife... the after-afterlife. And I'll haunt you from there."

"Sounds good."

Nicholas takes another deep breath. The whispers were distracting him. Shaking his head, he felt the beads of sweat roll down his forehead. _It's now or never,_ he thought. Another deep breath. _Okay. Let's do it._

Nicholas twists the doorknob and practically throws the door open, immediately moving his hand to help hold the Pico. A breach and clear entrance. He rushes in, sweeping the operating room through the gun's optics. The room was clear of any actual people, but...

"Oh my god..." William says in shock.

Nicholas lowers his pistol. _What the hell?_

In the center of the rather large room was a flat adjustable bed. Round blue lights were fixed to white tubes coming out of the ceiling above the bed. Coming out of these tubes were two monitors on the bed's right, with a much bigger one at the size of somewhere between twenty and thirty inches at the end. Yet another monitor is next to the bigger one. Along the walls were surgical necessities, with cabinets full of medicine and tools.

Alas, that was not the elephant in the room, so to speak.

Rather, the mess of blood and gore on the bed.

As the duo approached the bed with shaking legs, the whispers became background noise. There was a massive pool of pink blood formed on the bed, much like the blood seen in the convenience store. The rather large contrast between the two was the fact that not only was there blood on the bed, but _chunks_ of what must've been flesh.

"Oh my god... whaaat the fuck is this..." William asks, voice trembling.

"This is what I pictured. What I just remembered." Nicholas whispers in realization.

"Remembered? But you had it in mind before we came in, what the hell? Have you been here before?" William turns to Nicholas.

"I... I don't know. I don't remember being here." Nicholas replies.

"You calling the future or something, now?" William asks.

"That's Zéphyrine's job..."

"What? I- alright, whatever. What do you make of this?"

"I don't know. Look around, search the drawers." Nicholas says.

"Yeah, yeah, alright..." William nods, going over to the nearest cabinet and opening it up. "Empty. What are we even looking for?"

"_Anything._"

...

Soon enough, Nicholas and William may as well have turned the entire room upside down. All found were surgical tools, with blades seemingly sharper than necessary. No documents, papers, pictures, nada. Just them, a bed, and a bunch of blood and flesh.

"Who did this?" William asks, looking at the bed. "You think there's been another murder?"

"No... too soon, I think." Nicholas mutters.

"The blood looks kinda old. Older than today, I guess." William says thoughtfully. "But still."

"I don't like this room." Nicholas sighs, "We did all we could, let's get out of here."

With that, they start walking toward the exit. By now, the whispers were gone, but something else replaced them entirely. Nicholas stopped dead in his tracks when he started hearing a low buzzing noise just outside the door.

"Woah, woah, woah. What the hell?" William says. He heard it too.

"I don't know... humming? What is that?" Nicholas asks quietly, putting his ear to the door. Whatever it was, it was _right_ outside. If they opened the door, they would run right into it.

"Dude, I don't like this." William whispers. His whole body was shaking.

Nicholas was shaking as well. "Look, it's... it's probably nothing," he says, mostly trying to convince himself more than anyone. "Another one of Monokuma's dumb tricks."

"Dumb _tricks?_ I-If you're talking about a prank or something, you know, I could see this room being a prank, but come _on,_ you had those memories. That's no prank, Nicholas, this is more than what we think." William gulps.

"Prank or not, we gotta get out of here. We gotta get back to the hotel." Nicholas says.

"Alright, alright... it's just buzzing, right? What's it gonna be, bees?" William chuckles.

"Yeah. That's- that's the spirit." Nicholas says, laughing nervously.

"Ohhhh, fuck me."

"Look, you decided to track me down, man."

"Good point."

Nicholas and William stood at the door. Just like how they entered, Nicholas took a breaching position with William ready to move. "You ready?" Nicholas asks.

"Hell no. Let's just go." William replies.

_Alright..._

_I have a bad fucking feeling about this._

Deep breath.

In.

Out.

Twist the doorknob...

Nicholas pulls the door open and quickly readjusts his hands for the pistol he held. He didn't need to sweep the area, because if there were any dangers... There it was. Directly in front of them.

Standing in front of the door was a tall figure, clocking in at around six and a half feet, maybe more. It was slim and masculine, with a long face and slender limbs. What was most odd about the figure, was its lack of a _face._ Sure, it had the shape of one. All the grooves and indents to where parts of a face would go. But no eyes, no nostrils for the nose, and no mouth. The left part of it was a pure jet black, and the other an arctic white. This figure was hazy, blurry. It stood, staring down Nicholas and William. Humming.

Right where its eyes should be, two dark red, glowing orbs suddenly took their place.

It took about three seconds for the utter shock to reside.

"William, _RUN!_" Nicholas yells at the top of his lungs. William follows the order, dashing out of the room at the fastest speeds his legs could carry him, nearly tripping over his own feet on the way out. Nicholas pulls back the slide of the Pico and presses down on the hammer, cocking the gun. As he's about to take off the safety, he's interrupted.

The figure moved at speeds Nichoals couldn't even _see,_ as it moved an arm outward to strangle Nicholas. "_Hrck-_" he choked, eyes widening. The monotone figure raised his arm, keeping Nicholas in the air as he was being choked by the figure. His hands were still free, so he used them to disable the safety of his pistol and starting pulling the trigger.

_**Blam! Blam! Blam!**_

Three shots into the torso. The figure didn't even flinch.

_I can't breathe- I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe-_

_**Blam!**_

Another shot. No effect.

_**Blam!**_

A fifth shot.

One left.

_I can't breathe._

_One round left, I need to make this count._

The blood flow to his brain was starting to slow. Oxygen was practically gone by now. If this keeps up, Nicholas was going to pass out, and soon. The gun was doing nothing against this figure. What was he supposed to do?

_The head._

_The head!_

Slowly, Nicholas raised his arm to jam the muzzle of his gun into the figure's left temple. Not wasting any more time, he pulls the trigger.

_**Blam!**_

Black goo shot out the other side of the figure's head, accompanied by a bloodcurdling screeching noise as the figure suddenly disappeared from sight. As the iron grip it had on Nicholas' throat was no longer, he fell to the ground, immediately taking a giant inhale of air. His back was to the operating room's outer walls, as the officer shook in fear of what just happened. Nicholas' eyes dart around at high speeds, watching out for the figure while he got his breath back.

_Is... Is it gone?_

Seemingly, it was.

Left behind where the black and white figure once stood was a puddle of black goo. Nicholas' shots to the torso. It was gone.

A few moments later, Nicholas was full of oxygen. Calm, no. But physically, he was fine. Pocketing the empty Pico, Nicholas stands up, and dashes to the exit.

_I am... never coming back in here..._

* * *

...

_Ring-ring-ring-ring._

"Bluh... who's calling at _this_ hour?"

...

"Mihane, get up. Mihane!"

"Huh? What is it?"

"Phoooone call... It's Takeshi."

"Takeshi...? What does he want?"

"Only one way to find out, hmm?"

...

"Why, good evening Mr. Takeshi! How are things?"

...

"Oh my, already? Why, that's wonderful! Is he dead?"

...

"Ah. Unfortunate. Any other updates?"

...

"I see. Thank you very much, it was very kind of you to call, Mr. Takeshi."

_"Call ended."_

"What did he want?"

"Not much. We're one step closer to unleashing Protocol 6."

* * *

[A/N: I'm just gonna say this now. There's more than meets the eye to this SYOC. If you couldn't quite tell already. I hope you guys are enjoying the, uh, _unique_ way I'm taking this.

ShadedLyht: All will be revealed soon. Thanks, and don't worry about it! Just make sure you keep reviewing. ;)

Integras: Indeed. Now, was solving that riddle really for the best? Nicholas probably wouldn't have been choked out otherwise, but... oh well his problem. The pizzeria part was really fun to write. This story's usually very dark, so a little light every once in a while is not bad right? Thanks for the review.

JokersMaze: I'd say they're getting kinda close to that "worst of it" by now eh? Thank you ma'am.

IfTimeWasStill: That's what happens once I start getting into the meat of the story. Introductions are done, setting's in place-time to royally mess some shit up. Everything just flows better. And let's hear that speculation man. I love hearing from the readers.

ApexUtopia: Heh, there was almost a dead body. It's coming soon, though. Who is your favorite character?

dashunterman: Hikari x Hikaru is the real OTP. This fic doesn't really have any ships yet, does it? Maybe I should change that.

Thanks for reading, remember to review!]


	13. Chapter 10: Dawn

[A/N: HELLO, HELLO. Before we get into the chapter, I have a few things I wanna get through. Some good friends of mine are writing some SYOCs of their own and would like to get more popularity, so I'm going to just give a few mentions.

**A Flight of Fancy Despair - Limeade Space Dorito**

"Sixteen students. Two sadistic pilots. Forty thousand feet in the air. Despair looms imminent as the first international class of Hope's Peak Academy is forced into their new life - the Airborne Life of Mutual Killing. SYOC Closed, collab with SDproductions"

An SYOC that takes place in the middle of an airship. Plot twists every five seconds. Written by two insanely good authors. Check it out, make _sure_ you leave some reviews-they're going for the number one spot in reviews for the Dangan Ronpa section. If y'all review as much as you can they can get there.

**Safe Haven - CaptainQuackin**

"In the midst of The Tragedy the symbol of Hope world wide has fallen. The Future Foundation's HQ has been over run with despair, soon shutting down and ceasing to function. A mastermind decided that it would be fun to use the Shattered Hope to forge more Despair... In this destroyed Safe Haven, will it bring the Downfall of the world? (SYOC CLOSED)"

Written by an old RP friend of mine. A safe haven turned not-so-safe, as in, the remnants of what was once the Future Foundation's main headquarters. I myself am still reading but it's rather interesting. Review this one too! As of right now it only has 33.

**Dawn Rider - CrimsonSkyTamer**

"My name is Nicol di Avantia, and I am one of the talents on board the Dawn Rider. Sixteen of us went in. But none of us may exit alive. Sucks to be us. [SYOC Closed- 16/16 filled]"

Written by an even older RP friend. This one's on a boat! It's only just starting, but it's clear this is a unique one. So yeah, go check it out. As always, leave her some reviews.

Thanks, please do check them out! I would really like to see these guys get the attention their fics deserve.]

* * *

**Ding, dong, ding, dong.**

"Rise and shine, everybody! It is now eight o'clock a.m. Breakfast will be served in the hotel's food court on the first floor. Let's make today the best it can be!"

_Guh... I didn't sleep._

Nicholas was waiting for that announcement, having watched the clock tick by. In the last five or so hours since Nicholas returned from the hospital, he must've managed about twenty, maybe thirty minutes of sleep. As much as he wanted to sleep, he couldn't. Not after the encounter with that... _freak._ His eyes darted around the room all night, waiting for that figure to appear. Waiting for it to show up, and hold him by the throat. Thankfully, it never came.

If any of the mornings so far did sleeping in sound good, this was one of them. Alas, the cop couldn't stay in bed. He had to let everyone know about that figure as soon as possible. The students were in more danger than they thought.

After a rushed morning routine, Nicholas watched the weather forecast, despite knowing it's just going to rain anyway. Twelve degrees Celsius, with high winds and slight cloud cover. Light showers expected. Well, at least it makes sense this time. Nicholas got dressed in a dark pair of jeans, with a black t-shirt under a thin charcoal grey zip-up hoodie. After gathering his things, Nicholas leaves.

Unlike the day before, the sun wasn't quite as unforgiving on Nicholas' eyes that morning. At the very least, the cloud cover part of the forecast seemed to be true. The others were just waking up as well, with Nicholas catching a few leaving their rooms. A few waved hello. Nicholas returned the favor, before joining everyone as they made their way to the elevators.

"Morning, Nick." Seymour greets.

"Hey. Morning." Nicholas replies, offering a quick handshake.

"You look tired," Seymour comments, accepting that handshake.

"I ran into something crazy last night, Seymour." Nicholas says in a hushed tone. "I was attacked."

Seymour looks at Nicholas, surprised. He lightly grabs his arm and pushes him out of the crowd, alone. "Nick, what're you talkin' about? Who? Who attacked you?"

"No, it wasn't any of us..." Nicholas says, looking over his shoulder at the students behind him. "I don't _think..._ no one fit the build."

"Tell me what happened. Beginning to the end." Seymour replies, quickly setting his camera to record. It would only catch the hallway in front of them, but the audio was more than enough.

"Well. It's one o'clock in the morning, I can't sleep." Nicholas starts. "I realize I didn't finish investigating, so I went to go do that... the last place on the list is the second floor to the hospital. It was pitch black before, remember?"

"Right. Hoshiko said that." Seymour nods.

"Well, the lights were on, so I thought I'd go up... anyway, William finds me. Says he found me through the ElectroID, figured he'd come check things out with me." Nicholas continues, "Next thing we know, we're hearing those whispers."

"The whispers." Seymour raises a brow. "As in, the ones I was talking about."

Nicholas nods. "And I have one of those headaches, but this time I actually regained a memory. All I saw was blood. What happens when we go into a room? Fucking blood everywhere."

"You're kiddin' me..." Seymour sighs.

"I wish. Just blood everywhere, room's empty otherwise. And we start hearing... humming."

"Humming?" Rina asks.

"Yeah, humm- wait, what?"

Rina suddenly shows up, standing behind and in between Seymour and Nicholas. "Sorry. I've been listening." she chuckles sheepishly.

"Nick, keep going." Seymour says, gesturing for him to continue.

"Right." Nicholas nods, "Humming. We open the door, and I swear to god, this _thing,_ must've been like seven feet is just staring us down. Half black, half white. It _looked_ humanoid, but it didn't have a face, or anything. And it didn't look like a suit."

"What the hell...?" Seymour mutters.

"That's what I thought. I yell for William to run, and now this thing is choking me out. Picks me up and everything." Nicholas shakes his head. He quiets his voice more than it already was for this next part. "Look, the two of you better not say anything, but I have a gun for self-defense. I used it just last night to shoot the thing."

"Did he die?" Seymour asks, quickly.

"I don't know. Instead of bleeding, this black stuff came out. It disappeared and that was the end of that."

"Are you okay?" Rina asks, concerned.

"Yeah, it doesn't hurt anymore. That hospital is... I don't even know what to say, it was weird. Do me a favor and don't go." Nicholas frowns.

Seymour turns off his camera, staying quiet in thought.

The three make it to the elevators, and decide to wait up for the rest of the group. A few moments later, the other six arrive.

"Nick!" William runs up to the officer. "Are you okay? Look, I'm sorry for running off last night!"

"Don't be. I'm fine, I made it out." Nicholas reassures.

"Eh? The hell happened t'ya?" Tennoyama asks, confusedly.

"Long story."

"We almost died."

"Yeah, no big deal, really."

"What." Tennoyama blinks.

"I'll tell everyone when we get downstairs." Nicholas says.

"It was crazy. Straight out of a movie." William scratches his neck.

"That sounds awesome!" Hikaru exclaims, "How close were you to death? Did you see Death himself!?"

"Sort of?" William says, moving his hand in a 'so-so' motion.

"I mean, it depends..." Nicholas tilts his head in thought.

"Hey. Can you guys shut up for two seconds? The elevators are here." Daiki speaks up, sighing.

Sure enough, the elevators had indeed arrived. The nine awkwardly made it into one elevator, pushing elbows and bumping into one another. The elevator descended to the lobby, to which the students walked over to the food court.

...

Time passed. Everyone arrived to the food court, and Nicholas had finished explaining what happened the night before.

"...and then it shot _laser_ eyes! We narrowly dodged the monster's attack, before I heroically-"

"That's not even close to what happened." Nicholas facepalms, cutting William off.

"Yes it is." William grins.

"No." Nicholas says bluntly. "Anyways. After I told William to run, it started choking me. I managed to fight back and escape its hold, before it disappeared." he finishes the story, deciding to leave out the bit with the gun.

"I'm glad you're okay," Annie says. "I didn't know you were going outside. I would've at least went with you."

"Nah, it's okay... did you sleep okay, at least?" Nicholas asks.

"Enough." she replies. "I doubt you did."

"All in all, I managed a good... _hour_ of sleep, tops. I'm napping later, that's for sure."

"We don't have anything planned, then?" Daiki asks. "Cuz if Nicholas gets to nap then I'm staying in my room today."

"Wow, how boring is this guy?" Nori laughs.

"Shut up." Daiki rolls his eyes. "Some people aren't as social as others."

"Ohh. You're like brother Durion, then." Nori realizes, taking a sip of orange juice.

"Huh. Whatever happened to Durion?" Hoshiko asks.

"Eh. He'll be back eventually." Nori shrugs.

_Daiki's right, though. There's really nothing else that we _have_ to do. At least, not today..._

"I think we've done everything we can for now," Nicholas comments, finishing a piece of his pancakes, "So there's nothing on the agenda, today."

"Assuming Monokuma doesn't step in." Seymour retorts.

"Or seven foot black and white figures." William adds.

"Mm, maybe he'll _*munch*_ leave us alone today," Tennoyama says, in between chewing, "It's _*munch*_ only been a day since _*munch*_ Hibiki and Kinzoku... y'know."

Silence falls.

_They're... gone, aren't they?_ Nicholas thinks, solemnly. _There's nothing we can do._

"This doesn't feel right." Seymour says, quietly.

"It was meant to be." Zéphyrine mutters.

"No... no, it wasn't." Seymour shakes his head, "I refuse to believe it. Why would God want them to die?"

"Maybe that's not what he wanted... maybe he didn't want for any of this to happen, but he always has a reason for doing what he does." Zéphyrine replies.

"Then what's the reason this time, Zéphyrine?" Seymour asks, turning his head to face her. "Why'd he take them away from us? Before we could even get to know them?"

"God works in mysterious ways." Zéphyrine says, simply. She looks down. "I'm sorry. I don't have a better explanation."

Seymour sighs. "Don't be."

The rest of breakfast is rather quiet.

The next few hours are, actually. Most of the students realized there was nothing of utter importance for the time being, and went back to catch up on missed sleep. Nicholas included. It's now eleven o'clock in the morning, and a few students were rising.

_What to do now?_ Nicholas thinks, looking out his window. _I guess I can see if anyone else is up..._

The food court was bare, except for a small group of students at one of the tables. Shiori sat drinking some bubble tea and Gabriel was reading a book on one side of the table, with Bert and Hoshiko sitting on the opposite. There were still a few free spots, thus prompting Nicholas to approach the four.

"Oh! Hey Nick." Hoshiko greets, as he comes and sits beside her.

"Hey. What's up?" Nicholas asks.

"Boooooredom." Hoshiko replies, frowning. "There's nothing to do. I didn't find any good books or anything..."

"Did you get that violin from the mall?"

"No..." Hoshiko shakes her head.

"Oh. Why not?" Nicholas asks.

"...I don't know." she replies, with a hint of hesitation.

_Huh..._

"You should get it," Shiori smiles, "I started working on a song."

"Thanks Shiori," Hoshiko returns the smile, "I'd love to play it."

"So you guys are the musicians around here, huh?" Nicholas observes.

"I mean... I don't know," Hoshiko scratches her neck. "I'm not really the biggest fan of playing anymore, to tell you the truth."

"What do you mean?"

"It's not nearly as fun as it used to be nowadays." Hoshiko replies. "To be honest, I almost stopped playing... but, I couldn't do that. Definitely not after I got the letter from Hope's Peak."

"Ah... so getting in as the Ultimate Violinist made you keep playing?"

"I guess so, yeah." Hoshiko nods.

"Could you take a break maybe...?" Nicholas asks.

"Not exactly an option." Hoshiko sighs. "Before I started playing, um... I had a bullying problem."

"Wha-" Bert, having been invested in reading something-an autobiography?-swiftly turns his head over. "Bullying!? Who? Who bullied you, Hoshiko?"

"Oh, it's okay Bert!" Hoshiko says, laughing a bit. "Just when I was younger... People thought I was weird."

"How could they say that!?" Bert exclaims. "You are not weird in the slightest! You are, quite possibly, the _least_ weirdest person on the _planet!_"

"Well that's kind of boring, isn't it?" Hoshiko counters.

"Then-you have _very slight amounts of weirdness!_"

"Right." Hoshiko giggles. "Anyways. The bullying ended when I started playing, so... I don't really want to risk it starting all over again, I guess."

"Don't you worry what they have to say, Hoshiko." Bert waves it off. "Just do you! I bet they're just jealous of you."

"Maybe." Hoshiko shrugs.

"Bert, you really seem to know what you're doing?" Nicholas comments.

"Ah, why I'd say it's a gift of mine." Bert grins. "I realized I had it in drama class. I had a knack for speaking! I took it to the next level in debate club. Then I took it to the _next_ level when I learned Japanese and French. Then Hope's Peak contacted me."

"Huh. Japanese isn't your first language?" Nicholas asks. Judging by how he's been speaking Japanese thus far, Bert seems pretty well versed.

_"Nope. That would be English."_ Bert spoke, in perfect English.

_"Same with me. I actually wasn't born in Japan, which I guess should make sense."_ Nicholas shrugs.

_"Ah. I'm from America. You too, then?"_

_"Yup. Moved here almost three years ago."_ Nicholas nods, _"You speak French too?"_

_"Mais bien sûr."_

_"...I don't know what that means."_

_"'But of course', Nicky. You need to brush up on your français."_

_"I guess so..."_

"Hmm. What about you, Gabriel?" Bert then asks-switching back to the Japanese they've been speaking all this time. "Where are you from?"

"H-Huh?" Gabriel looks up from his book, surprised. "I-I'm from Japan."

"Ahh. Born in Tokyo?"

"Not quite..." Gabriel scratches his neck. "I grew up in a forest..."

"Woah. What's the story behind that?"

Gabriel paused. "I-It's a... a long one."

"Huh. You don't want to say?" Bert asks.

"I mean- well, I could, but-" Gabriel suddenly shakes his head. "N-No I can't."

_Can't?_

"...Is it me? I'm not gonna arrest you." Nicholas chuckles.

"Y-You probably would..." Gabriel looks down. "I-I mean, well, I can tell you that we ran an... an inn, though..."

_Huh. What kinda crap did he go through?_

"I-It was for anyone crossing through the forest. B-But less people needed to go through... s-so business was kind of slow." Gabriel continues.

"That sucks." Nicholas frowns.

"Ah. Shiori, you haven't shared yet?" Bert then prompts.

"Um, there's not much to say..." Shiori says, "I've been writing classical music since I was really young."

"Wasn't your music in a movie, or something?" Nicholas asks, "My brother bought this movie once and I swore it said, 'music from the Ultimate Composer of Hope's Peak Academy' or something on the cover."

"Yeah... in a lot of movies," Shiori nods enthusiastically, "Video games too."

"That's great!" Bert compliments.

"Thanks," Shiori accepts sheepishly, "I don't know how much longer my music is going to last, though..."

"Aw, why not? Your music is awesome!" Hoshiko exclaims. "Oh, yeah. I've heard it before, haha."

"People don't really listen to classical music nowadays. It's going to be replaced by modern music." Shiori frowns.

"No it won't!" Hoshiko protests. "I'll keep buying your music! No matter what happens!"

"I'll do that too." Nicholas agrees.

"So shall I!" Bert pumps a fist in the air.

"Um. I'll listen too...?" Gabriel says, blinking.

"Aw... thanks, guys." Shiori smiles.

"Wait. Nicholas, you only talked about your Ultimate." Hoshiko realizes. "It's your turn! What's your life story?"

"Huh? Well... there's not much to say," Nicholas scratches his head, "I was raised in New York. Ended up moving all the way over here to Japan for uh... family, I think? Job opportunities? I don't know."

"Well that sounds boring." Hoshiko says, chuckling.

"Shush I'm not done yet." Nicholas rolls his eyes. "I went to school for a few years, met this guy named Kagome. Told me he was going for the title Ultimate Private Eye, which he ended up getting. Me, him, my brother, and a few others we went to school with got involved in this massive case..."

"Woah. A massive case? Now this is getting interesting." Hoshiko replies.

"It was a murder case. Between two Yakuza families." he continues. "Police couldn't solve it. Practically no evidence. Then, out of nowhere, Kagome pins it on this kid-our age-Arata Inoue. We've been on the hunt for him since the last year or so, the guy's a ghost."

"Wow." Hoshiko blinks.

"I remember that case."

Cutting into the conversation was Seymour. He walked in, hands in pockets. "I had a crack at it too," he says, "couldn't find anything to save my life."

"Makes sense. You're the Journalist, no?" Nicholas asks.

"Of course." Seymour nods, "My last big case was somethin' like that..."

"What is it with you people and murder cases?" Bert asks, sighing. He shakes his head in dismay.

"It was a bit _more_ than a murder case. Seventeen victims." Seymour says.

"...seventeen." Nicholas parrots, blinking.

"Seventeen." Seymour confirms.

"Oh my gosh. You found who did it?" Hoshiko asks.

Seymour pauses. He nods.

"Wow. How'd you do it?" Nicholas asks.

"Hannah Dowd." Seymour recalls. "Leader of the newspaper club. Y'see, practically everyone at school was intimidated by me. _She_ wasn't. She was fearless."

"She sounds interesting." Nicholas comments.

"Oh, she was. Enough I ended up catchin' feelin's for her." Seymour continues. "Took me a damn while, but I asked her out eventually."

"Oooooh." Hoshiko teases.

"Ohohoh!" Bert joins in on the teasing too. "When's the wedding?"

"Guys..." Seymour sighs, trailing off. "She ain't around no more."

"Aw." Hoshiko frowns. "Sorry. She break up with you, or?"

Seymour bites his lip. "No. Not quite. I didn't break up with her either."

"What happened then?" Hoshiko asks, tilting her head.

"She was the seventeenth victim." Seymour says bluntly.

Silence fell.

"I'm sorry. Didn't mean to drop the mood like that." Seymour says, "Basically, she was checking out this old house for a story in the newspaper. Disappeared. I checked it out, it... it was bad."

"Shit, man. I'm sorry." Nicholas apologizes.

"I'm so sorry!" Hoshiko does the same.

Bert nods in respect.

Gabriel and Shiori give a simple "I'm sorry".

"Don't worry about it." Seymour shakes his head, waving it off.

_Beep beep_

A notification suddenly comes from Seymour's pocket. He reaches into it, pulling out his ElectroID.

"What's that?" Nicholas asks.

"Meh, just a text." Seymour says, opening it up. "Rina."

"Ah. What's up with you guys, anyway?" Nicholas leans back in his chair, "Sure have been hanging out a lot."

Seymour shrugs. "What can I say? She's a good friend."

"That's all?"

"Nick..." Seymour sighs. "I'm not looking for that here. Last thing I need is a repeat of Hannah."

"Crap, true. Sorry." Nicholas nods.

"Mark my words. It's gonna happen again. We're gonna lose someone else." Seymour says, quietly. "If it's Rina, and we were _together..._ I don't know if I could make it through the rest of the game."

"You really think someone else is gonna kill? Even after the pizzeria?" Nicholas asks, frowning.

"Our morale's up right now. No doubt about that. That doesn't mean sometime down the road Monokuma won't put out another motive and someone else breaks."

"I was kinda hoping someone would come get us out of this damn place before then." Nicholas crosses his arms.

"Well, no matter what happens, we can't fall to despair." Bert adds his two cents. "No matter what happens, we need to keep our spirits as high as we can!"

"What he said," Seymour agrees, "The day we lose is the day we give up."

"I-I don't know..." Shiori starts, "If we start losing more people, h-how are we going to stay happy?"

"I won't be." Gabriel frowns.

"I mean... I haven't gotten over Hibiki and Kinzoku..." Shiori continues. Her eyes were already beginning to water. "H-Have you?"

"Hell no!" Nicholas denies. "But we just... need to look after ourselves, too."

"Monokuma wants us to feel despair. He said it in the trial, remember?" Seymour adds, "God knows what'll happen if we give him the satisfaction of seeing us in despair."

"They were supposed to be our classmates... now they're gone. Forever. I don't know if I can just deal with that." Shiori says, sniffling.

Nicholas, Seymour, and Bert all collectively share glances.

"She's got a point." Hoshiko says.

"...We can do this." Nicholas replies, simply.

_But can we really?_

* * *

"Man, I knew it was hot in Brazil, but this is crazy."

"You _are_ wearing a full suit, Hitaka."

"I didn't know we were going to Brazil!"

"You could've at least taken off your jacket when you _did_ know..."

"I wanted to look professional."

"A shirt and tie's still professional."

"You wanna fight about it, Kagome?"

"I don't care if you're the Ultimate Fighter, I could still kick your ass."

"You two sound like an old married couple, man... get ready, I just got report he's coming out."

Hitaka and Kagome's bickering was cut off by a fellow Faith officer. It's closing in on midnight, and their airship had landed hours ago. Kagome's friend was finally about to come out. The plane landed in a private airfield surrounded by Brazil's mountains, with the Atlantic Ocean only minutes away. Said plane was currently behind the ninety other Faith soldiers, whom had several humvees around them, bright blue headlights illuminating a hangar-the meeting spot.

They've been waiting for a rather long time now. Alas, it was finally go-time.

The doors to the hangar open. Joining the sound of the creaking doors and the birds chirping, dozens of clicks were heard as the Faith infantry cocked the rifles in their hands. Despite Kagome's insistence that he was a friend, the higher-ups called for the utmost of security. The humvees' xenon HID headlights lit up the hangar, revealing the man standing in front of it, clad in black.

Kagome starts walking towards him, men and women of Faith splitting up to let him go through. He stops a few meters in front of the hangar, staring the man down.

He wore a long, black coat over a charcoal grey pinstripe vest and pair of pants. A white dress shirt accompanied with a rose-red tie peeked out from his vest. Atop his head was a black trilby with a band of the tie's color around it, which mostly covered his eyes. However, enough of them could be seen to see the harsh glare in his dark brown pupils.

"Yoshida." Kagome greets, coming up in front of him, offering a hand. "It's nice to see you."

Yoshida didn't say a word. He nodded, shaking Kagome's hand.

"What're you doing all the way over here in Brazil? Figured you'd be somewhere out in Japan." Kagome says.

"Investigating." Yoshida replies, in a gravelly voice to rival Kagome's own.

"Well, I hope you can take a break from that for a bit." Kagome says, reaching into his pocket to pull out a pack of cigarettes. Yoshida denied when he offered him one, prompting Kagome to shrug and light his own. "Gonna need your abilities."

"As expected." Yoshida says, quietly.

"Nicholas got into a mutual killing game." Kagome continues. "Each one of our enemies are involved, and we need to get these kids out. War's about to break out. Think you can help us out?"

"..." Yoshida doesn't respond.

"I think you know where I'm going with this." Kagome says, taking a drag of the cigarette in his mouth. "This wasn't supposed to happen. We need to fix this."

Yoshida looks to be deep in thought for a moment. "What do you want me to do?"

"Well... you're a Superior, no?" Kagome asks, "Of course, we all know what your Superiority is. We can use that to prevent this damned thing from ever happening."

Yoshida flinches.

Kagome found that odd. Yoshida doesn't flinch.

"Come, Kagome." Yoshida says, turning to the hangar. "We have a lot to discuss."

* * *

"So. They're in Brazil." Mihane announces.

Back at the motel, The Storyteller and Mihane were outside. Each of the students' families were currently underground, going through the process of succumbing to despair. The two above however, were simply discussing matters together. Mihane's laptop rested on an empty barrel.

"Brazil? Are they playing soccer or something?" The Storyteller asks.

"They've been at this airfield for the past few hours..." Mihane says, "Scans say someone else just showed up."

"Ooh. Who would that be?" The Storyteller then asks, going over to look at the laptop screen.

"Not sure. Faith is clearly planning something." Mihane replies.

"Maybe they're planning... mass destruction!"

"That's our job."

"Oh, yeah."

"It's pretty weird, though." Mihane frowns. "Did they find us or something?"

"The Future Foundation did." The Storyteller crosses his arms, pacing around the area. "Maybe they did too."

"Then why are they in _Brazil?_" Mihane asks.

"Counter-measures?" The Storyteller offers. "Perhaps they know about the Future Foundation too! And they're going to Brazil to create their secret weapon for the inevitable war-"

"Yeah, sure." Mihane deadpans.

"I could be right for all you know." The Storyteller retorts.

"Maybe, Mr. Storyteller. Maybe." Mihane replies.

"What's that ETA again?" The Storyteller asks.

"Twelve days."

"Right... call an announcement for me, will ya?"

* * *

**Ding, dong, ding, dong.**

"Hey, you bastards!" Monokuma's face was shown on a large screen above the food court's entrance. "Do me a favor. Come to Despair Square-I got somethin' for ya!"

"An announcement... eugh, crap. I thought we didn't have to do anything to do today." Seymour mutters.

"What the hell does he want now?" Nicholas asks, getting up from his seat. He quickly says to the others, 'come on, let's go'.

"Who knows. It's always something, huh?" Hoshiko says.

Minutes later, all fifteen students are present in a transport bus. The engine comes to life and the bus starts moving.

"There goes my nap..." Daiki sighs.

"Were you still asleep?" Ryoko asks him.

"Yup." Daiki nods, "Announcement was full blast and woke me up, of course."

"My apologies." Ryoko frowns. "This can't be that big of a deal, is it?"

"Dunno. Didn't like the way he said 'I got somethin' for ya'. Think it's another motive?" Tennoyama says, thoughtfully.

"No way. It can't be." William shakes his head, "That's just... way too enthusiastic to get us dead. Sending a monster thing to choke us out _and_ a new motive? All in less than twelve hours?"

"Well, I wouldn't put it past Monokuma." Ryoko says.

"It isn't a motive." Zéphyrine says with confidence. "It just... doesn't seem right. At least not at the moment."

"I agree with Zéphyrine." Nicholas nods.

"Oh well. Only one way to find out, right?" Hikaru smiles. "And don't worry. If that bear tries anything I'll kick its ass."

"Oh, Hikaru!" Tennoyama swoons. "You're so brave..."

_I... what? What am I hearing right now?_

Sounds of ranging but mostly vague disgust resounded through the bus after that little line of Tennoyama's.

Soon enough, the bus came to a stop at the one and only Despair Square. After pouring out of the bus, the students found Monokuma standing directly in the center, as expected.

Nicholas took the lead, giving Monokuma an angry face in an attempt to be intimidating. "What the hell do you-" he starts.

"What do you want, you big stupid meanie!?" Hikaru exclaims, standing in front of Nicholas.

_Oh. Okay then._

"Hey! That hurts my feelings, you know." Monokuma says, dejectedly. "And to think I only called you here to give you a gift!"

"What kind of-"

"We don't want your gifts!" Hikaru yells, cutting Nicholas off again.

"Fine! I won't give it to you then!" Monokuma yells back.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Monokuma, can you just-"

"_Fine!_"

"Hikaru!" Nicholas facepalms.

"Oh. Were you trying to say something?" Hikaru asks.

"Yes, actually. I was." Nicholas mumbles through his hand.

"Oops! Go right ahead." Hikaru grins.

"Right. _Monokuma._" Nicholas says, sighing. "What do you want to give us?"

"At least he's interested." Monokuma frowns. That frown's turned right upside down as Monokuma puts out a paw, pointing to the giant screen on the building across from the bridge. "Everybody please pay attention to these screen!"

The screen, once black, came to life. A red set of numbers in an alarm clock-style font reading _12:00:00:00_ was on a pure white background. Several 'huh?'s and 'what?'s came from the crowd.

"This here is a countdown! If you couldn't tell." Monokuma says. "Y'see, that says twelve days. That's a little shorter than usual. Your guys' stay in Las Despair City will have to be cut short... oh, how un_bear_able!"

"Wait." Nicholas says, eyes widening. "You're saying in twelve days we're going to be out of here?"

"...I'll put it to you like this. In twelve days, my rule over y'all will be no longer. As a certain event is gonna happen. Trust me, in these twelve days, you will still go through your despair! There will be more deaths!" Monokuma exclaims.

"No way!" Hikaru balls her hands into fists, pouting. "We can go through twelve days no problem! We won't kill again!"

"Yeah, what she said!" Tennoyama raises her voice, standing next to Hikaru.

Nearly everyone agreed with the two, as everyone began cheering.

"Upupupu..." Monokuma puts his paws over his mouth. "Y'all are so confident, aren't ya? Believe me, you don't know what's coming."

_He said 'a certain event'..._ Nicholas thinks.

"What's that event you mentioned? In twelve days?" Nicholas asks.

"Well, I'm not gonna tell you! Don't you know what suspense is!?" Monokuma yells. "You'll get more despair once it all happens if you don't know what's coming!"

"You can't tell us anything...?" Ryoko asks, hesitantly.

"I can tell you this... while my rule over you will be gone, that doesn't mean you're going to be safe. That doesn't mean you're going to be free from this city. Honestly, you're probably going to be in more danger than you are now!" Monokuma says.

_Shit..._

"That's all for now, folks!" Monokuma continues. "Bye-bye!"

With that, Monokuma walks off, whistling a happy tune.

The countdown begins as the group assembles in a circle, all facing one another.

"Well. Now what?" Nicholas blinks.

* * *

**12 DAYS LEFT**

* * *

[A/N: A mysterious countdown appears! I wonder what that's for! Mysterious.

ShadedLyht: Awesome. That's exactly what I'm going for. Thanks!

Integras: I always try to be unusual. I look at what the norm is, and try to break it as much as I can. Monsters is pretty norm-breaking, eh? Thanks for the review.

Thanks for reading. As always, drop some more reviews man.]


	14. Chapter 11: Powerless

_["Open video: ?"]_

_["Opening video."]_

_..._

"Alright... entry number two. This is Nicholas White, and, well, I'm still here."

_Nicholas White is seen in the same place as his first entry, running a hand through his hair. He looks distressed._

"Uh. There's been a new development, at least. Monokuma showed us a countdown a few hours ago. He said some 'certain event' is about to happen, in twelve days."

_White picks up the camera. Instead of having it face himself, he moves it so to record the television next to his desk. He switches through the channels, until a set of numbers appear on screen. 11:20:42:19._

"Yeah, see? It's even on TV. Eleven days, twenty hours, forty-two minutes, nineteen seconds and counting until this event. He said, uh, what was it..."

_White moves the camera back around. He's standing, seemingly deciding not to sit at his desk._

"Oh, yeah. 'You don't know what's coming.' Pretty ominous if you ask me."

_White sighs. He goes quiet for nine seconds. During the break, he takes a deep breath, shaking his head in dismay._

"I don't know. I don't even know what to expect. I was _attacked_ last night, too. Some... seven foot tall figure, half black and half white, started choking me out. I shot it-yeah, we have guns now, I already reloaded-and it disappeared. So I don't..."

_He trails off, sighing again._

"Everything feels so familiar. Like I've already done this before. This video, it feels like I already f****** recorded it. Just... deja vu every two seconds."

_White is catching on, apparently._

"I don't get it. I know I have amnesia. That's obvious. But why would this feel familiar? I don't remember doing this game before, and even if I did, why would the _exact same events_ happen?"

_But not enough._

"Agh, shit. I need Kagome on this..."

_White stays silent for approximately twelve seconds. He sits back down at his desk._

"I guess that's it. For now. So, um... alright, seeya."

_The video ends thereafter._

_Final thoughts: Nicholas White is a threat to Ultimate Despair. He always catches on to things quickly. It's not clear when, but White will eventually win his war against Despair._

_["End video?"]_

_["Video ended."]_

_..._

_["Create file?"]_

_["Enter file name: _"}_

_["File created."]_

_I had another talk with Kagome Kazuki today. It went down exactly as expected. He comes to Brazil. I invite him into the hangar. I tell him everything. The cigarette in his mouth nearly drops from the shock, but he understands soon enough. We plot for what to do next._

_Taichi Nakahara has hacked into Las Despair City's cameras. The countdown's already started. Twelve days, it seems. This game seems to be going Route 4. We already got into the airship, we're gonna be there in about twenty-four hours._

_Hopefully we can get the students out of there before anything else happens. Kazuki is saying we should drop soldiers in, a first response team thing before calling in any big guns. Hopefully, this means a Route 16 will happen. But there's just so many other possibilities..._

_I'm just so tired of this. I don't want to do this anymore._

_["Close file?"]_

_["File closed."]_

* * *

"So. Twelve days, huh? Wonder what that's all about." William says to the others next to him. The Cheater sits in the hotel's lobby with a few other students, gulping down the contents of an energy drink he found somewhere.

"What did that thing say?" Daiki asks, referring to Monokuma. "'My rule over you will be no longer'?"

"It's a bit concerning." Ryoko says. "What happens then? Why will Monokuma be gone?"

"Maybe he's giving up!" Hikaru exclaims, "He finally realized that I can kick his ass no problem."

"If you're so confident you can get rid of Monokuma, why don't you do it already?" Daiki deadpans.

"...I'm tired right now." Hikaru pouts.

"Right..."

"Man, I don't feel safe anywhere now." William sighs. "Not after last night."

"That's right... you were attacked, yes?" Ryoko says, tilting her head.

"Yup. I'm not looking forward to whatever's happening in twelve days..." William frowns, before turning to Daiki. "Hey, Daiki. Was it you?"

"Was what me?" Daiki asks.

"Who attacked Nicholas and I last night."

"I have better things to do than dress up in a black and white morph suit and choke people..." Daiki facepalms.

"True. You seem the type to choke people _without_ a morph suit. Have the last thing your victims see be your face." William jokes.

"Yeah, pretty much." Daiki shrugs.

They assumed Daiki was just going along with the joke, but Ryoko blinked in confusion upon hearing it. He's a Bounty Hunter, isn't he?

"Haha... indeed." Ryoko laughs nervously.

"You know, that was a dick move." Hikaru says, looking at William.

"Eh? What was?" William asks, confused.

"Running off on Nicholas." Hikaru crosses her arms. "You never leave your friends in danger."

William is quick to reply. "I know. I feel really guilty about it. I panicked."

"Well, don't do it again!" Hikaru glares.

"I won't! Wait- are you implying it might happen again?"

"You never know."

"You at least have a way to defend yourself?" Daiki asks William.

William hesitates. He nods. "I... visited the firing range, earlier."

"What'd you grab?" Daiki asks.

William reaches into his pocket. He grabs the item inside, pulling it out just enough so Daiki can see it, before putting it back.

"A Beretta, eh?" Daiki chuckles. "Over all the smaller ones... you aren't holding back."

"Ooh. The Beretta 92FS, which holds up to sixteen nine by nineteen parabellum rounds. Manufactured in Italy, it's-" Hikaru starts.

"How the hell do you know all that?" William cuts her off, blinking.

"Know what? Guns? I don't know what you're talking about." Hikaru retorts.

"What was your talent again?" Daiki asks.

"Ultimate Volleyball Player. Why? You got a problem with that or somethin'?" Hikaru replies.

"I don't see why a _volleyball player_ would know so much about firearms... you aren't lyin' to us, are you?" Daiki asks, a slight knowing grin on his face.

"Wha..." Hikaru looks at Daiki with widened eyes. "Well, why the hell do you know anything about guns!? You clearly knew it was a Beretta!"

"Cuz I'm a Bounty Hunter, plain and simple. Look, your clothes don't always hide the scars, Hikaru... between that and gun knowledge, c'mon."

With that, William and Ryoko instinctively look toward Hikaru. She was wearing a jacket, but had athletic shorts on-which prompted them to notice the slight scars covering her legs.

"Alright, c'mon Daiki. Leave her alone, she's probably the most innocent soul out of all of us." William frowns.

"Agreed. If she _is_ lying, which you have no proof of, I would assume she has her reasons." Ryoko concedes.

Daiki pauses for a moment. "Meh. That's all fine and well, but when Hikaru reveals her true identity and becomes the next killer, I get to say 'I told you so'."

With that, Daiki gets up out of his seat, walking off to the elevators.

Hikaru is seen typing away at her ElectroID, right after.

* * *

_Beep beep_

Daiki stands in a moving elevator when his ElectroID suddenly goes off. Raising a brow, he takes it out of his jeans' pocket.

_A message has been received. [Read] / [Close]_

_Who the hell's messaging me?_ he thinks, as he hits the 'read' button.

It's from Hikaru.

_Hikaru Momoko: "So. I guess you decided to turn your back on me, Daiki? I hope you know that you're going to regret that. Immensely."_

Daiki stares at the message in confusion. But then that confusion turns into a grin. "I see. Got you now, Hikaru."

* * *

It started to rain again that evening. Only light showers for now, but the sound of thunder could be heard in the distance every so often. The wind began to pick up as well. Clouds began blocking out the sunlight.

The students had made plans to meet for dinner, again. An hour from now. Monokuma made his presence in the group chat clear, saying he'll cook once again. The pizza from yesterday tasted pretty damned good, so they had no objections. Nicholas exits the shower, quickly throwing some pants on as he notices a message from his ElectroID. Seymour asked to meet with him downstairs, apparently.

_Huh. Okay..._

Nicholas gets dressed in black slacks, with a white button-down and maroon red tie under the black rainjacket he wore last night. Getting all his things-Beretta and tranquilizer included-he makes his way downstairs.

Seymour's waiting in the lobby, ElectroID in hand. He wore the same bomber jacket, but now had blue jeans and a white t-shirt on. His chain necklace was still there, with his satchel bag still over his shoulder.

"Hey, Seymour. What's up?" Nicholas asks, approaching him.

Seymour gets off the wall he was leaning on. "Nick." he nods, "C'mon. We got time to check something out before dinner."

"Check what out?" Nicholas asks, following as Seymour began making his way to the elevators.

"We're going back to the mall," Seymour replies, "You're gonna see that convenience store for yourself."

"Oh. Right before dinner, though? I'd rather not risk being strangled before I eat..." Nicholas frowns.

"Presumably, there's only a figure in the hospital," Seymour says as he calls for an elevator, "You might get a head attack, but you can deal."

Nicholas sighs. "Okay. How come you want _me_ to see it, though?" he asks.

"Well. Now that the power's back on, I can try to find something that's been nagging at me for a while," Seymour replies, "and there's no way in hell I'm going alone."

"So I'm backup, then."

"Meh. Pretty much."

A few minutes after, the two are in the parking lot. Nicholas pilots their same sports car, heading out of the parking lot and into the next district.

"I really don't like this part." Nicholas murmurs. "Monsters, whispers..."

"Yeah. Blood and the Future Foundation, too." Seymour adds.

"If this is the second district, what the hell is the _third_ going to be like?" Nicholas asks.

"Hopefully we're out of here before we get to find out." Seymour says.

"Agreed." Nicholas nods.

It doesn't take too long before they make it to the mall. Just like how when Rina solved the riddle, the sign was alit with neon colors. With a deep breath, Seymour says "Let's go." and opens his door.

To Seymour's relief and confusion, the whispers had stopped. Nothing. This time around, the whole mall was illuminated as well. Things seemed okay.

Nicholas found himself to not be extremely happy being here. Why did he let Seymour drag him here? He's reminded of Seymour pulling him aside and interrogating him. _He doesn't even trust me... tch, I should just turn around and go home._

The two enter the convenience store. Though the whispers were gone, the blood wasn't. It stained the corner between the magazines and the shelves, just like before.

"I don't get it, Seymour." Nicholas says. "What are we gonna find here that you already haven't? I'm sure I've seen everything when you showed me that video."

Seymour raises a brow. "I figured you'd want to take a look. You're the cop, you should want to get info as much as me, if not more?"

"I'm not even a cop." Nicholas retorts. "The badge doesn't automatically mean cop, you know? Jesus, everyone thinks that..."

_It's kind of getting on my nerves..._

For reasons unknown to Nicholas, he just felt _anger_ rising up inside him.

"...Well." Seymour blinks. He certainly caught the sudden hostility, and was rather surprised by it. "Look up there, Nick. CCTV camera. Maybe that thing recorded what happened here."

"Ah, of course. Gotta get down to the nitty-gritty, don't you Seymour?" Nicholas rolls his eyes. "Like all the other reporters. Can't mind their own fuckin' business."

"Nick. The hell's up with you all of a sudden?" Seymour asks, bluntly. "You're being a bit of a dick, you know?"

"Deal with it." Nicholas glares.

"You weren't like this earlier. Something happen?" Seymour asks.

"No, nothing happened, Seymour..." Nicholas sighs, shaking his head. "Forgive me. It's nothing really, just my literal job is to ensure people's safety and _I just let two kids die right before my eyes._"

Seymour found this odd. Why would he be feeling guilty about that all of a sudden?

"Not to mention now you're dragging me along so in case the _whispers_ come back you got me to _defend_ you." Nicholas continues. "Just give me some more responsibilities, why don't you?"

"I can defend myself just fine, Nick." Seymour replies, crossing his arms. "If you're gonna be crying the whole time, you can get the hell out of my sight."

"Hey, _fuck_ you." Nicholas suddenly says, advancing toward Seymour. "I'm the one who saved all those hostages at Haneda Airport last month. I led that whole operation. I'm the youngest member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, and Special Unit-do you even know what is? You should be treating me with a bit more _respect!_"

"Fuck your respect!" Seymour shouts. "You wanna talk respect? You wanna talk accomplishments? Come talk to me when you open a closet and find _seventeen decapitated heads_ in there. Including one of the girl you were supposed to take out to lunch. Talk to me when you're in the attic of a serial killer's house and you hear the keys in the door. Talk to me when you have to hide for an hour and a half until the police come!"

"Without people like _me,_ you never would've gotten out of that goddamn attic!"

"I'm sure the force would've been just fine without you!"

The two bicker back and forth. As time went on, the argument only escalated. Spit started flying between mouths. Before long, Nicholas was practically seeing red. And so was Seymour.

The sudden anger was unnatural, but they welcomed it.

Nicholas suddenly shoves Seymour. "You know what? I shouldn't even _be_ here. You don't trust me. You interrogated me. And you were way too eager to tell Rina and Hoshiko about what I said in my video. How do I know you haven't said anything to everyone else? How do I know you haven't gotten everyone against me?"

"I had reason to believe you were suspicious, Nicholas!" Seymour shoots back, "You can ask them yourself, I didn't say a damn word to anyone else. And hold on, do you not trust Rina or Hoshiko?"

Nicholas pauses for a moment. "I do. Which is wrong. I shouldn't trust any of you, I shouldn't..."

Nicholas backs away for a moment. Seymour had his back against one of the shelves, glaring into Nicholas' eyes. Nicholas couldn't hold back this anger.

He'd been taught not to act on impulse, but he's throwing that idea out of the window now.

_I can't save these kids._

_You know what? They're all just going to die anyhow._

_So screw this._

Nicholas paces past Seymour and to the beverages in the back. He opens the refridgerator door, taking out a glass bottle. He now stands at one end of the aisle, with Seymour at the other. The two stared each other down.

Nicholas puts up a finger, and beckons for Seymour to come.

That's all Seymour needed to break out into a sprint.

He dashed toward Nicholas at high speeds, and before he could react, pummeled him into the fridge. The impact alone shattered the glass. Nicholas grunted in pain-Seymour was stronger than he looked-before sending a knee into Seymour's stomach-following up by hitting him over the head with his glass bottle.

Seymour snarls, rearing back as he holds his head. The bottle had broke apart on contact. Nicholas' blunt object now became a sharp one, as the glass left on the bottle were now sharp spikes. A now deadly weapon. Just as Nicholas wants.

Nicholas thrusts forward with his bottle. Seymour dodged, but Nicholas kept advancing. He swung wildly, but Seymour's reflexes were enough to dodge them-most of them. He would find a few nicks and cuts in his arms. Seymour backed away enough that the two were no longer in the aisle.

"Going for the kill, huh Nick?" Seymour asks. "Even after all those words you said last night?"

"I thought there was a chance for us, for all of us!" Nicholas shouts in response, tossing the bottle down to the ground. It breaks, adding to the pile of glass shards. "I now realize, there's not. There's no way we're all getting out of this!"

"You don't know that! If you would just settle down, we could wait for help!" Seymour retorts.

"It's been four days already! If they were coming, they'd be here by now! Four days, Seymour! Ninety-six hours and two victims!" Nicholas growls.

"Four days is nothing! For all we know, help could be on the way!" Seymour yells.

"I'm done waiting. I'm not gonna be here by tomorrow morning. I'm killing you, and I'm getting out of here!"

Next thing they know, a Beretta pistol is in Nicholas' hands.

Seymour suddenly has a look of realization. His eyes widen, as he puts his hands out in front of him. "...Woah, hold on, Nick. Hold on a minute there."

Nicholas pulls back the slide. "I told you. I'm not waiting anymore."

"Nick, I think Monokuma's playing with us again." Seymour replies, "Holy shit. Yeah, he is. Nick, I'm sorry, that wasn't me-I wasn't in control, you aren't either. Monokuma's somehow manipulating us right now."

"I'll have to thank him at the trial, then." Nicholas says, looking down to the gun as he disengages the safety with a click.

"Nick!" Seymour raises his voice. "I'm sorry for attacking you. I wasn't in control. But I am now, and you gotta listen to me. This is what Monokuma wants. He's... I don't know how he's doing it, but he's messing with our emotions, trying to get us to kill each other."

Nicholas extends his arm out. While his left is at his side, his right is straight in front of him with a gun in his hand, Seymour in its sights. "I didn't want it to come to this, Seymour. I'm sorry."

"Nick... we need to find the truth here. That's what we're here for. That's our job. I'm the reporter and you're the police." Seymour says, slowly taking a step toward Nicholas. "Don't make this mistake. If we die, the truth could be lost forever and it's game over. We need to be here for the others."

"Screw them," Nicholas says, shaking his head, "And screw you! I'm done, goddammit!"

With that, Nicholas' finger finds its place on the trigger.

_I'm sorry._

**Blam!**

...

...

A gunshot was heard.

Though, it didn't come from Nicholas' gun.

He didn't pull the trigger. Seymour was still on his feet, in front of him.

Nicholas was practically frozen in time. _What? I didn't shoot... where did that come from? Wait, why the hell was I even going to shoot?_

Seymour took this opportunity to disarm Nicholas. He quickly dashes forward, grabbing the gun right out of his hand. "Nicholas, you need to stop. That wasn't you. That was someone else. Somebody else just tried killing."

**Blam!**

A second gunshot brings Nicholas backs to reality. His anger had faded away, and he was back to himself.

"Hooooly shit. What the hell just happened!?" he asks, eyes widening. Mostly in disgust at what he was about to do.

"Nick. Are you back?" Seymour asks.

"I... yeah. I'm sorry. I-okay, no time, we gotta get the hell out of here. That was what, two shots fired?" Nicholas asks, starting to make his way out of the store.

"Yeah. Come on, we gotta run, sounded like it came from downtown." Seymour says, following.

And so, they began moving.

Finally back to reality, Nicholas and Seymour were running on nothing but pure adrenaline. Sure, confusion too, but they can work that out later. To their understanding, Monokuma managed to get rage out of the duo, which caused them to want to kill. According to the two shots fired, they weren't the only ones.

The rain from earlier had turned into a storm. It was pouring like mad, worse than they've seen before. Lightning flashes and thunder roars. Their clothes stuck to them as soon as they made it out of the mall, running to the car. Nicholas fumbles with the keys, hands shaking as he hits the 'unlock' button on the fob. Seymour takes shotgun and Nicholas twists the key in the ignition, as the engine roared to life.

Nicholas put the car into gear, pressing his foot down on the gas. Just as the car made it out of the parking lot, that familiar ringing of a bell was heard throughout the city.

**Ding, dong, ding, dong.**

A screen in the car's console came to life with the image of Monokuma.

"Attention all students! A body has been discovered! Class trial will begin in a few hours, so please use this time wisely."

"Oh, no fucking way!" Nicholas shouts. "A body!?"

"Aw, _shit._" Seymour curses. "This is it. This is the second motive."

Nicholas floors it. The spedometer's needle went way up as they speed past the bridge, entering Despair Square. That countdown was still on screen.

"Alright, alright, alright." Nicholas takes a deep breath. "Where did the gunshots come from?"

"Just keep going straight. Near the hotel, probably." Seymour replies.

It was a few minutes between the square and the hotel. The car's speed and the rain did not mix, as they hit a puddle and lost control for a split second-leading them to hit the curb, but no real damage was done. Brushing the impact aside, they kept moving.

"Woah woah woah, Nick, slow down!" Seymour suddenly says. Nicholas hits dead brakes.

"What, what?" Nicholas asks.

"Rina!" he raises his voice. Seymour gets out of the car and starts running on foot, to which Nicholas follows.

In the middle of a random intersection were two people. Rina was seen on top of another student-pounding in the face of one Nori Pazuru.

"Rina, calm down!" Seymour says, running over and grabbing Rina. He picked her up off Nori, restraining her.

"_LET ME GO!_" Rina suddenly shrieks, fighting back. "_LEAVE ME ALONE!_"

Nori gets up, backing away as he wipes blood away from his mouth. "She's gone bonkers, guys!"

"Nicholas, talk to her!" Seymour says, still holding her back.

"Rina, listen to me!" Nicholas goes over in front of Rina. "This isn't you! Monokuma's playing with our emotions, I don't know how, but he's getting us to act like this. He's controlling you!"

"No one's controlling me!" Rina yells back. "I just can't fucking take it anymore! The _guilt, just-_"

"Guilt? Guilt of what?" Nicholas asks, "We can talk about it, you don't need to do this."

"You know who's still part of my family? Me. And my mom. My brother's dead and so is my dad! I'm the reason he's dead!" Rina answers.

"What do you mean, you're the reason?"

"Avalanche. Killed by an avalanche. The danger report was a moderate, but I just wanted to ski with him, so I told him it was lower... we went, and, and he just..." Rina trails off, breaking down into sobs. She stops fighting back.

"Rina, I'm sorry." Seymour says. "Monokuma's getting out our inner demons. Our secrets, our guilts. You can't let him do this to you."

Rina stays silent.

"...Man, am I glad I'm immune to this." Nori blinks.

"I'm sorry," Rina apologizes. She sniffles, shaking her head. "I'm- I'm okay now."

"Good, good." Seymour lets go of her. "Now, we've got a problem. Did you hear the gunshots?"

"I did," Rina nods, "That way."

She points down the road. The hotel can be seen in the distance. The three get into the car, getting back into the swing of things.

They found a group of people at an intersection a few blocks down, where the gunshots appeared to come from. As they were about to park, their attention is taken to the screen in the console.

**Ding, dong, ding, dong.**

"Attention all students! A body has been discovered! Class Trial will begin in a few hours, so please use this time wisely."

"Oh my god." Rina says, "Wasn't there an announcement already?"

"That means there's been a second murder," Nicholas says, worriedly.

The car is parked and they make it over to the group. There's three students looking down on the sidewalk, with nothing but pure horror present in their faces.

Nicholas, Seymour, and Rina shuffle through them, reluctantly getting a look at what had their attention.

...

* * *

_[WARNING: BLOOD/GORE.]_

One of the students lay on the road. At first, it couldn't be told who it was.

Because their face was _gone._

Instead of a face, there was nothing but a mush of blood and gore. Whatever happened here, the skull was penetrated, leaving for cranial matter and bits of bone to be spread about on the pavement. Blood was splattered all around, and was still pooling up.

Moving down on the body, there was a gaping hole in the chest. It didn't go all the way through, but enough to be able to see the insides.

According to the clothing, they assumed it could only be one person.

This was the end of her story.

**Ryoko Tsukatani, the Ultimate Poetess, is dead.**

* * *

Rina shrieked in terror. Seymour put his hand over his mouth, backing away. Nicholas could only stare.

Is that... really Ryoko?

Nicholas heard the sounds of vomiting from nearby. He had to fight back his own vomit. Ryoko's face... there was nothing to it. Mashed into bits. Not to mention the _hole_ in her chest. Who could do something so vile? Who lacked the humanity to resist this kind of thing?

They looked around, and the coast seemed to be clear. No other bodies, so where's the other one?

As they looked around...

**Ding, dong, ding, dong.**

"Attention all students! A body has been discovered! Class Trial will begin in a few hours, so please use this time wisely."

"A third- a third body!?" Tennoyama screamed. "What the fuck!?"

"Are you guys okay?" Nicholas quickly asks.

"Yes, we're not angry anymore! But three! N-Nick, I, what the hell do we do!?"

"God." Daiki mutters. "This is insane."

"You... know what this means, don't you?" Annie says, scared. "If this is all the work of one killer, they broke the rules."

"But what's the punishment for breaking the rules?" Seymour murmurs. "If someone breaks the rules, will Monokuma tell us?"

"I don't... I don't know..." Annie replies.

The six all look at one another.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

[A/N: In case this doesn't make sense, here's the gist of what's going on: Monokuma has found a way to use the students' inner demons against them. By manipulating this and their emotions, they lose control and do something they don't want to do.

Anyways! Yeah. I hope you guys like how this case is gonna play out. This has been really interesting. Although, poor Ryoko. Rest in pieces. God, that description was hard to write. Let me know what you thought.

PSISomething [Chapter 11]: Pizza is great, isn't it? Zephyrine is playing a rather interesting role, I recommend you pay attention to her. And yeah, I realized William wasn't getting a lot of spotlight, figured he finally deserved some. As for the war thing: I'm gonna let you know now, this story won't be following the usual format of "5 murders and shit gets real around halfway or later". More like "_ murders and shit gets real right from the beginning".

PSISomething [Chapter 10]: Don't worry about it. As for that creepy scene-awesome. I always figured I'm not the best at writing horror, but it looks like that went down well. Thanks for the reviews.

CaptainQuackin: No need to apologize. Hikaru's like the best honestly. So much fun to write.

ApexUtopia: Yeah, that might be where I got the idea from... shh. Do check those fics out.

Thanks for reading!]


	15. Chapter 12: Recovery

**[A/N: Should be fairly obvious by now, but just a little warning for blood later on.]**

* * *

"Hitaka! What'd he say?"

"Sixteen hours left."

"You're kiddin' me... he can't go any faster?"

"That's _if_ he goes fast."

"So you're tellin' me, by the time we get in there, everyone's gonna be fuckin' dead."

"Well... I don't know. A few of them regained control already. If they all do, then maybe there won't be any more deaths."

"God..."

Kagome rests his face in his hands. It was now past midnight, and spending some time watching the cameras off a tablet revealed to the Faith crew just what's happening in Las Despair City: an absolute bloodbath.

"The most we can do now is keep watch." Hitaka frowns, advising Kagome. "We'll get there when we get there."

Kagome sighs. "Got it."

* * *

The students are scattered about across the downtown district. Nicholas, Seymour, and Rina got back into the car, leaving Tennoyama, Annie, and Daiki to investigate what happened to Ryoko. There were two more body announcements, and this means shit has _quite_ frankly hit the fan.

Only adding to the storm of crap already going on, aside from the screaming they could swear they heard the whispers once again. As Nicholas drove, his eyes would dart around every few seconds, watching for another encounter. Now was really not a good time to run into one of those figures.

"God... Ryoko's actually..." Rina whispers from the backseat. Tears stain her cheeks.

"We're gonna find who did this. What really happened here." Seymour says, riding shotgun.

"Can we really blame who... _killed_ her?" Rina asks, "It's not even their fault, Monokuma _manipulated_ us all!"

Seymour frowns, pausing for a moment. _Were we really manipulated?_ he thinks, _Or would we have killed anyway?_

"Doesn't matter." Nicholas adds his two cents. "Either way, we need to find the killer... _s._"

"Huh?" Rina asks, questioning that 's'.

"Chances are, there's been more than one killer," Nicholas says. Approaching a curve, he lets off the gas and turns the steering wheel. "There weren't any bodies near Ryoko, and..."

"We don't know what really happened yet." Seymour comments. "I guess everything's gonna come out in the trial..."

_Fuck,_ Nicholas mentally curses. He had forgot about that rule. With every murder comes a trial. And with every trial, comes death. Either one-perhaps two, in this case-or everyone.

"We don't have much time. We need to get investigating..." Nicholas sighs.

They've been following the sounds of screaming for the past few minutes. Someone was in trouble. There's already been three murders, there can't be any more.

The source was finally found.

Nicholas turns another corner, finding two people in the middle of the road.

He's immediately reminded of the battle between Rina and Nori, as this was rather similar-Nori was the victim _again._ Except, what split the two apart, was the apparent blood on the pavement.

"Oh god, who is that?" Rina asks, as the car comes to a stop.

"I don't know..." Nicholas says. Leaving the keys in the car, he climbs out onto the road.

As everyone dashed toward the two, rain began falling onto their heads once again. Though it was barely noticeable at this point, the storm only appeared to worsen. Lightning flashed and revealed the hundreds of raindrops on the road, while thunder nearly drowned out the yells and screaming. Heavy winds made Nicholas' and Seymour's jackets flap about.

"Guys! Help, these people are insa_aaaane- augh!_" Nori yells. He's cut off by a bloodstained knife being jammed into his shoulder.

An arm was wrapped around Nori's neck. That arm belonged to one Hikaru Momoko. Her other arm was recovering from stabbing Nori's shoulder.

"Shut the hell up!" Hikaru shouts. "Why won't you just die!?"

"I don't know!" Nori yells, followed by a pained groan.

"Oh gosh- Hikaru, please calm down!" Rina says, worriedly.

"Fuck you!" Hikaru spits.

Rina goes silent. _Was I like this?_ she thinks.

"Hikaru, listen to her! Come on, this isn't you!" Nicholas follows up.

"You're not in control-" Seymour starts.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Hikaru denies. Next thing they know, the knife in her hand flies up to Nori's throat. She has him in a hostage position with the blade ready to cut.

Nicholas' hand automatically flies into his jacket, ready to pull out his Beretta-though he then remembers another weapon of his. He now holds his tranquilizer, the Pneu Dart Model 179B, aimed in the direction of Hikaru.

"Hikaru. Let. Him. Go." Nicholas says, sternly and calmly. He glares down the sights of the pistol.

"What're you gonna do, shoot me?" Hikaru asks, "In front of all these people?"

"I'll do what I have to." Nicholas replies.

"Hah! You won't hurt me. You don't have it in you." Hikaru grins. It had a rather evil undertone.

"Really? You think so?" Nicholas says, taking a step toward her.

"Not another step!" Hikaru yells, pointing her knife in Nicholas' direction for a moment, before bringing it back to Nori. "I see what you're doing, Nicky."

"You're not in _control,_ Hikaru. Monokuma's playing with us. You gotta calm down." Nicholas continues trying to calm her down. He stops moving. Out of the corner of his eye, he catches a shadow moving.

"Nah..." Hikaru shrugs, "Actually, y'know what? I think it's about time I kill this stupid kid now."

Hikaru's hand tenses up as she is about to bring the sharp edges of her blade across Nori's throat...

Until Seymour comes out of nowhere, barreling into Hikaru.

"Wha!?" she exclaims. Hikaru fell to the road. The knife is dropped to the ground as Nori is freed - he shuffles away with a hand on his wounded shoulder, as Rina comes up to him.

Seymour calls Nicholas over, who runs to the two. Seymour had Hikaru restrained on the ground, the latter trying to fight back. In one quick motion, Nicholas aims at Hikaru's neck, and pulls the trigger.

It only took a few moments for the dart to do its work, knocking Hikaru out cold.

"...so how'd you know that would put her out and not kill her?" Seymour asks.

"Uh, I guess I didn't..." Nicholas scratches his neck.

Seymour promptly carried Hikaru into the backseat of their car. Nicholas went over to Rina and Nori.

"Is he okay?" Nicholas asks.

"I don't know," Rina says, "It doesn't look too bad, but..."

"It hurts." Nori frowns.

Nicholas takes a look at him. The only real wound he suffered aside from a few bruises and tiny cuts was that shoulder stab. "I've seen worse, you'll be okay." he reassures. "Hold on."

He takes this moment to take his tie out from his collar, undoing it. Nicholas wraps it around Nori's shoulder as an improptu bandage. "Make sure that doesn't fall off, find something better as soon as you can."

Seymour arrives. "How's he doing?"

"I'll be fine. Apparently. According to Nick." Nori shrugs, before wincing and giving a quick 'ow'. His hand flies up to his wounded shoulder.

"Just take it easy there, okay?" Nicholas sighs.

Nori salutes with his good arm. "Aye aye."

"Well, I don't think you guys noticed, but Bert sent us a message." Seymour then says. His ElectroID is in his hand. "Calling us to the intersection of 5th and 8th."

"Oh. Where is that?" Rina asks.

"According to the map," Seymour replies, looking at his ElectroID, "that way."

And thus, all present climb into the car and speed away. It was rather cramped with Rina, Nori, and a sleeping Hikaru in the back, but they managed. The ride was quiet. Tense. No one dared say a word, instead opting to deal with their inner anxieties and worries. Nori was more focused on that wound of his, keeping a hand firmly clasped over the tie wrapped around it.

Soon enough, the sight of Bert tells them they've arrived.

There's a rather concerning sight in the middle of the intersection.

As the students got out of the car, leaving Hikaru to her slumber, the first thing they saw was a large, blackened crater.

With two people next to it.

* * *

Lying face down, next to one another and opposite, were two males. One rested with his arms outstretched, seemingly perfectly fine... if it wasn't for the lack of a foot.

Where his right foot should be, it was blown clean off right up to the shin. Bone stuck out, with tiny pieces of flesh hanging off what was left of the skin. The rest of his foot was scattered around the crater behind him, including pieces of the fabric his shoe once was.

The other lay opposite to the first. His head was in line with his fellow, but the rest of his body was on the other side. In the back of his head, there was a rough, dense hole. It extended deeply, but not enough to make a full hole. His face was much like Ryoko's, but instead of being destroyed FUBAR - fucked up beyond all recognition - it was mostly intact. Blood stained the pavement underneath his face.

After a few moments, inspection proved who they were.

**William Tricher, the Ultimate Cheater, and Gabriel Stein, the Ultimate Engineer, are dead.**

* * *

This time, there wasn't any shrieks. Really, it was expected by this point.

"Well, that's a bit concerning." Nori says.

"William..." Nicholas mutters. He remembers the hospital. How William came and found him, how he made sure Nicholas wouldn't be alone. How the two fought off that figure together.

Then suddenly Seymour puts up a hand, approaching the body. "Wait. Hold on a second."

Seymour puts his hand to William's neck.

"...He has a heartbeat."

There's a pause.

"Wait, what!?" Nicholas suddenly asks, coming over to check.

Sure enough, he had a heartbeat, though it was slow. William's chest rose ever so slightly, too.

William was _alive._

Eyes widening, Nicholas quickly checks Gabriel's heartbeat too. However, there's nothing. Gabriel was out for the count.

"Oh my gosh, William!" Rina says, looking at his foot. "What do we do?"

"Oi, what the hell happened here!?"

A loud voice suddenly thunders through. In comes the owner of the voice - Tennoyama - alongside Annie, and Zéphyrine.

Nicholas gets to his feet, getting an idea as he takes out his ElectroID. He doesn't reply as he begins snapping pictures of the area. Seymour realizes what he's doing, taking pictures as well with his actual camera.

"Oh dear." Zéphyrine bites her lip. "This is about as brutal as Ryoko..."

"Ryoko's dead?" Nori asks. "Aw... well, I mean, I don't know who that is, but..."

"We got a situation," Nicholas finally says, about a dozen pictures later. "Gabriel is dead. But William's still breathing!"

"Wait, what!?" Tennoyama recoils in surprise, "Then what are you doing taking pictures!? We gotta get him to the hospital!"

"These pictures are gonna help us find what happened here," Nicholas retorts, "and, crap, I don't know about the hospital..."

"Why?" Annie asks. "We have to save him, don't we?"

"William and I were attacked. I don't want anyone to be patching him up and have that thing attack again." Nicholas replies, with a frown.

"Nick, I can fight it off! William's going to fucking die if we don't do anything!" Tennoyama raises her voice, clearly distraught. "Look how much blood he's losing!"

Nicholas looks down. Yep, the more time passes by, the more blood is going to spill out of that wound. _Shit._

"Alright, alright, go." Nicholas nods. He reaches into his pocket, and out comes his pistol. Not the tranquilizer, the real one. He offers it to Annie. "Go with her. If a seven foot tall, black and white figure comes and starts choking you out, aim for the head. Safety's on the side over here."

"Oh, that's reassuring." Rina comments.

Annie nods, determined. She takes the gun. "Thank you."

Tennoyama shrugs off her jacket, revealing her white undershirt. Muscles likely thanks to her field were found as well. The mountain climber wraps said jacket around William's wound tightly, in an attempt to slow the bleeding until they get to the hospital. She puts William over her shoulder, and heads off to a nearby transit bus with Annie.

"You realize you're a suspect, now." Zéphyrine frowns.

"What? Why?" Nicholas blinks.

"You just showed us all your gun." Zéphyrine crosses her arms. "There were two gun shots, no?"

"Nope. He's innocent." Seymour shakes his head. "We're each other's alibis."

"Oh." Zéphyrine says, with a quick sigh of relief. "Good. Where were you two, may I ask?"

"Uh..." Seymour starts, remembering that scene in the convenience store.

"Don't worry about it." Nicholas scratches his neck.

"Well, anyways! We have more concerning news!" another voice says. It's Bert. "There were three body announcements, but clearly only two bodies."

That was true. Now that William's being taken to the hospital, it was only Gabriel on the road, messy wound still in the back of his head.

"Great. So where's the third body?" Nicholas asks.

Bert simply points down the road.

About a block away, was someone slumped against a wall, with another person facing them on their knees. Starting near Gabriel's body was a puddle of blood, which trailed to the two.

Solemnly looking at one another, the trio of Nicholas, Seymour, and Rina head off.

The sound of quiet sobs were amplified as they followed the trail of blood. It's confirmed the student facing the one on the wall is one Hoshiko Hanazawa. Tears slowly come from her eyes.

It's rather clear why.

* * *

Shoulders down, face staring at the sidewalk with closed eyelids, was the next victim of this horrid game. Blood trailed from the previous victim, Gabriel Stein, up to the brick wall of what seemed to be a small electronics shop. The only visible wound was the handle of a combat knife jutting out of the new victim's side.

Much like the very first victim of this game, she looked peaceful. As if she were sleeping.

This was her good night.

**Shiori Yoshida, the Ultimate Composer, is dead.**

* * *

The first thing Nicholas did was check for a heartbeat. Nothing.

**Ding, dong, ding, dong.**

After a few moments of letting the information process in the students' anxiety-filled minds, the ringing of a bell echoed across the district.

"Upupu... you did it, everyone!" Monokuma announces. His face is plastered on the six TVs stacked on top of one another in the window behind Shiori. Hoshiko finally looked up, watching the TVs. "That's all three bodies! Looks like y'all calmed down now, too. Class Trial will begin shortly, you better get investigating."

The screens go dark.

"When will this stop...?" Hoshiko asks, weakly.

Nicholas kneels down, coming to Hoshiko's level. Rina takes Hoshiko's other side, putting a hand on her shoulder for support. Seymour stood next to Nicholas, looking down on the body.

"I don't know." Nicholas answers.

* * *

[A/N: Bit of a short chapter, my apologies. Writer's block maybe. Idk. Anyways, all the victims have been revealed. Rip Gabriel and Rip Shiori. What's gonna happen to William? Will he die in the hospital? Will he make it? Will that figure show up? Who the fuck knows. (I do.)

Question to the readers, answer in the reviews: What are you thinking of the story? I've been noticing drops in both views and _re_views. Is interest being lost? Let me know, I'd love to improve.

IfTimeWasStill: Hahaha. Yup, this case shall be interesting. Everyone's pretty much accounted for, now. At the very least, there's no more victims.

ApexUtopia: RIP RYOKO. Her and her eyepatch served us well. A monster may as well have torn her apart. No, not literally, the hospital figure didn't show up. Hospital figure is innocent.

Thanks for reading.]


	16. Chapter 13: Curtains

"Soo, Annie - know anything about amputation?"

"Um, no."

"Don't think a bandaid'll cut it, would ya?"

"He lost a foot... I think we'll need a lot of bandaids."

Lying on a bed in the hospital is the wounded William Tricher. He was still out cold. Still lacking a foot. Next to him are the girls Annie and Tennoyama, staring down at him.

"I don't know what to do," Tennoyama winces, "He's losing blood fast..."

It was true. Out of the stump where William's right foot should've been, blood poured out like buckets, staining the mattress he lay on. The thick liquid spilled out onto the floor, seeping between the hardwood planks. As time went on, the color in William's face continued to drain. They were losing him. With the mangled flesh and organs staring them in the face, things weren't looking good.

"Okay, we should stop the bleeding." Annie decides, a determined look in her eyes. "I'll look for bandages, you need to apply pressure."

"Uh, to what exactly?" Tennoyama blinks. "All these nerves and whatever? William wakes up he's gonna be in hella pain."

"Pressure or not, he's going to be in pain. Just... press on the whole wound." Annie says.

"Hoo boy. Alright, let's do this, William..."

With that, Tennoyama started pressing hard on the remains of William's foot. She applies considerable pressure, determined to save William.

If she can do anything about it, not another soul will die.

Her brown, fingerless gloves slowly became _pink_ fingerless gloves. The blood began staining them. There was no way for Tennoyama to tell if she was doing anything right.

Annie was still rushing through drawers. She stared down as she pulled open shelves, only to close them soon after. It was a hospital room, there had to be something, right?

It's only a few moments later that William begins blinking.

"William?" Tennoyama asks. "William!?" In her shock, she started pushing even harder than she was before.

William stares at Tennoyama with watery, horrified eyes. His eyebrows are furrowed as he quickly glances around the room, trying to piece together just what's going on. His eyes finally land on Tennoyama holding onto his shin.

"T- Tennoyama...?" he says, with widened eyes.

"Hey, look at me!" Tennoyama yells. "Stay with me, William!"

"Wh- what's- what's going on?" William asks, still looking around him.

"You're gonna be fine, William! Just _stay with me!_" Tennoyama says, raising her voice.

William's heartbeat spiked. His breath quickened. Initial shock was beginning to wear off...

And then, hitting him like a semi slamming into him at full speed, came the pain.

"Aaaaaaa_aaaaaaghhhhhh!_" William rears his head back, screaming in complete agony.

"Oh god." Tennoyama gasps.

"Here!" Annie suddenly speaks up. She raises a hand, lo and behold there's a roll of bandages in it. "I found the bandages!"

"Alright, c'mere and use the damn things!" Tennoyama shouts.

Annie dashes over. With calm hands, she begins unwrapping the bandages. Tennoyama takes this moment to step away.

"Oh my god!" William yells. "What the hell happened!?"

As Annie begins wrapping her bandages around William's shin, Tennoyama walks up next to William. "Look, there's been a bit of a situation, alright?" she says, "You were attacked."

"Wh-what..." William stares at Tennoyama. He suddenly winces and lets out a pained groan. "Ahh- _arrrgh!_"

"Easy, easy! Take it easy, man." Tennoyama says, about to place a hand on his shoulder. She then realizes covering William in his own blood may not be the best option, and that hand stays at her side. "You're gonna be okay. As long as I'm here. I'm here for you, Will." she reassures.

William doesn't reply, instead opting to look into Tennoyama's eyes. He focused on them, in an attempt to distract himself from the pain. His breath grew heavy.

"You're gonna be okay." Tennoyama says again.

"Oh, oh god..." William says, inhaling deeply through his nose. A heavy, shaky exhale through the mouth followed. "Okay, okay..."

"He's wrapped up." Annie announces.

"Good, go- _kch-_" Tennoyama says, turning to Annie. She freezes in her tracks at what she sees, next words becoming nothing but a choke.

William's eyes widen. "What the... what the hell is that!?"

"...Annie. Don't... move." Tennoyama advises.

_So this is what Nicholas was talking about._

In the heat of the moment, no one noticed the _thing_ arrive behind Annie.

A seven foot tall, monochrome figure.

It stared down at Annie. Annie stared at Tennoyama, who in turn stared back, accompanied by William.

"That ain't right..." Tennoyama whispers, "What in the hell...?"

"You don't have a gun, do you?" Annie asks. She did her best to keep the calm look, but something behind that could be seen in her eyes.

"No." Tennoyama shakes her head. "...You do though."

Annie begins taking deep breaths, in and out through her nose.

"I'm- I'm not hallucinating too now, am I?" William asks.

"No." Annie says.

"Okay, Annie. I'm gonna come over there." Tennoyama swallows. "You're gonna give me the gun. I'm gonna shoot this bastard. Got it?"

"Sh-shoot..." William parrots, trailing off. His eyes suddenly widen again. "Oh Christ. Th-that's... that's that thing that attacked me and Nicholas..."

"Any tips?" Tennoyama asks.

"When its' eyes start glowing red... y- you're screwed."

"Great." Tennoyama comments.

"Well, are we doing this?" Annie asks.

After a pause, Tennoyama nods.

"Comin' over. Don't move a damn inch." Tennoyama says.

Slowly, she moves a foot forward. Then another. _Doing good so far,_ Tennoyama thinks. Just one more step and she'll be in range of Annie.

But all it took was one wrong step to royally fuck everything up.

As Tennoyama's foot made contact with the wood beneath her, the floorboard _creaked._

Tennoyama froze.

The figure's eyes went red.

Next thing they knew, a slender hand was firmly clasped around Tennoyama's neck.

Grotesque choked noises escaped from her throat. The figure had just suddenly _appeared_ in front of Tennoyama, and its hand was practically in a fist around her neck. Just like the conflict with Nicholas, William, and the figure, Tennoyama was being choked out.

"Oh-_kgh-_ help!" she managed.

William was frozen in fear. Annie however, barely seemed miffed. Glaring at the back of the figure's head, she reaches into a pocket and equips the gun she was given.

Safety off. A gunshot rings out through the room.

_**Blam!**_

Everyone's ears promptly began ringing. Wincing, William covers his ears.

Black goo spewed out of the front of the figure's head, splattering Tennoyama. She's released, and the figure is gone. It seemingly vanished, disappearing in thin air.

"Agh!" Tennoyama lets out a pained yell. Her face is covered in the ink. "It burns!"

She immediately raised her arm and tried wiping the figure's 'blood' off with her forearm, but that only burned her arm too. Seemingly, the blood was acidic.

Annie's eyes widen. No words said, she dashes off to a sink. She reaches into a shelf, taking a white face towel out. After a quick turn of the knob, she puts the towel under the lukewarm water now coming out of the faucet, before returning to Tennoyama. Not wasting anymore time, Annie presses the towel to her face, wiping off the blood.

Soon enough, it's gone, and Tennoyama's face is clean. Annie cleans off the goo that came onto Tennoyama's arm. Both areas are extremely red in color and rather _raw,_ like a bad sunburn. Either way, the crisis is averted. With the figure gone, the only thing they had to do now was look after William.

"Y-You know... I didn't think I'd ever be here again... and, that's, that's exactly why..." William says.

"Well, I definitely believe you now." Tennoyama blinks. "Owch, this hurts..." she says, rubbing her face gently.

"I'll look for some lotion, or something..." Annie says.

"Annie, how in all hell are you so calm?" Tennoyama asks.

"I'm the pacifist here, you know? If anyone here needs to be calm, it's me. This way I can defuse situations with no trouble... like the one just now." Annie replies, somewhat nonchalantly.

"Meh. I guess." Tennoyama mutters, looking away and crossing her arms. Then realizes her gloves are still bloody. Muttering a curse under her breath, she slips them off, tossing them into a nearby garbage can.

The only thing to be heard now were William's every-so-often groans of pain (losing a foot does that to you) and Annie shuffling through shelves for something to help Tennoyama's burns.

Their thoughts drifted back to the others. They hoped things were going alright.

* * *

Surprisingly enough, things were going alright.

The student count was fifteen before the motive. Three more are dead; bringing this down to twelve. Another three are unavailable for investigation- Tennoyama, Annie, and William- so there were now nine students. It rounded off rather nicely, because now they can split up into groups of three.

Nicholas, Seymour, and Rina were investigating the death of Shiori Yoshida.

Bert, Nori, and Daiki were investigating Gabriel Stein.

Zéphyrine, Hoshiko, and Hikaru, the latter of which having finally gotten back to her senses, were in charge of Ryoko Tsukatani.

"This is familiar, isn't it?" Nicholas frowns.

"What do you mean?" Rina asks.

"Back to investigating a murder... and, once again, the weapon seems to be a knife." Nicholas comments. "For Shiori, anyway."

Seymour sighs. "Well, let's get to it."

With that, the investigation begins.

* * *

**INVESTIGATION START!**

* * *

_Monokuma File #2: Ryoko Tsukatani, the Ultimate Poetess_

_Cause of Death: ?_

_Time of Death: 6:30_

_Notes: Several weapons were used. Some postmortem._

_Monokuma File #3: Gabriel Stein, the Ultimate Engineer_

_Cause of Death: Brain Failure_

_Time of Death: 6:37_

_Notes: The explosion did not affect Gabriel._

_Monokuma File #4: Shiori Yoshida, the Ultimate Composer_

_Cause of Death: Blood Loss_

_Time of Death: 6:45_

_Notes: None._

* * *

It didn't take long for the Monokuma Files to be released. Everyone promptly read them off their ElectroIDs, with the trio surrounding Shiori having to scroll to the bottom for their File.

"Notes... none. Great. That helps a lot." Seymour says.

"To be fair, it doesn't look like much happened here..." Nicholas comments. He kneels down to Shiori's level and takes in information of the body from a glance.

Shiori was slumped against the window to an electronics shop. Her eyelids were closed, and lips slightly ajar. A glistening blade was stuck in her right abdomen. A pool of pink blood surrounded her. The wound didn't look serious at all, if it wasn't for Nicholas already having checked her heartbeat, they would've thought she might still be alive.

Nicholas shoots a few pictures of the scene, writing in the first piece of evidence.

* * *

_A new piece of evidence has been added. [Read] / [Close]_

_\- Shiori's Body_

_Shiori's leaning against a window to some electronics shop. Looks like she didn't suffer any wounds other than a knife sticking out of her side._

_(Attached are photos from different angles of the body, including a close-up of the wound.)_

_\- Added by Nicholas White_

* * *

Time for the only other visible piece of evidence regarding Shiori. That blood trail.

Starting not too far away from Gabriel and where William once lay, a trail of blood led to the pool Shiori currently sat in. There wasn't much room for debate, the blood must've been Shiori's. Presumably, anyhow.

Nicholas adds the trail to the list of evidence, which is followed up by someone else adding a piece.

* * *

_New pieces of evidence (2) have been added._

_\- Blood Trail_

_A trail of blood starts near Gabriel and leads to Shiori. Blood from her wound goes into the end of the trail, so I assume it's Shiori's blood._

_(Attached are photos of the trail.)_

_\- Added by Nicholas White_

_\- Head Wound_

_There's a small hole in the back of Gabriel's head. It's rough and dense. Not a clean wound. The hole doesn't extend all the way through._

_(Attached is a photo of Gabriel's head wound.)_

_\- Added by Daiki Tachibana_

* * *

As mentioned in Daiki's uploaded piece of evidence, Gabriel suffered a wound through the back of his head. Judging by the blood and tiny cuts around the actual hole, it was rough. Whatever entered his head penetrated the skull and brain, as proved by the fact that you can look through and see tethered strings of meat about halfway through. The hole does not go fully through, meaning whatever happened here, the weapon only went through half of the head.

"So how the hell did that happen?" Nori asks. "He gets this hole in his head but didn't go asplode like Willy?"

"Weird, isn't it." Daiki comments. He's currently crouched down, examining the wound.

"Isn't that a good question though?" Bert asks, walking over next to Daiki. "The crater's right there!"

"I got it!" Nori suddenly pounds his fist into an open palm. "Shrapnel!"

"What?" Bert blinks.

"Don't bombs throw shrapnel around or something?" Nori blinks.

"Yes, and there _is_ shrapnel around, but where's the one that cut into Gabriel?" Daiki blinks.

"Oh." Nori blinks.

"Please, pardon me! But just what exactly is this, _shrapnel,_ you speak of?" Bert asks, clearly left out.

"The shell to a bomb." Daiki explains. "Most bombs have shrapnel so when they explode, they also throw these fragmented pieces of the shell around. If the bomb isn't enough, the shrapnel is like a last resort."

"So a piece of shrapnel could've killed Gabe! Er, right?" Bert says.

"Unlikely. Number one, the piece that killed him should still be lodged in his brain. Number two, there's no bloody piece of shrapnel around him. Number _three, _the wound would not be shaped like this. This wound consists only of an entry wound. A piece of shrapnel, should it not still be in the victim, would have to come out the other end." Daiki replies, eyes closed all the while.

"Woah. That's some good deducing." Nori says, nodding.

"I have another question!" Bert raises his hand, like an eager student in a classroom. "Who says no one just took out the shrapnel?"

Daiki frowns. "Well, I was thinking the same thing, but... let me confirm something."

With that, Daiki flips Gabriel's body over. He goes as far as raising the body's shirt, and rolling up the pant sleeves, examining it. Bert and Nori do the same. After a few minutes, Daiki nods, and returns the body to how it was beforehand.

"I'm sure you both saw what I saw." Daiki says.

"I didn't see anything!" Bert crosses his arms.

"Exactly."

* * *

_A new piece of evidence has been added. [Read] / [Close]_

_\- Lack of Wounds (Gabriel)_

_Despite being so close to the crater, and shrapnel being all around, Gabriel suffered no other wounds than the one in his head._

_(No photos attached.)_

_\- Added by Daiki Tachibana_

* * *

The others' ElectroIDs beeped with notifications. Bert looks at Daiki, confused. But Nori knew exactly what this meant.

"I see where you're going with this." Nori grins, after checking the newly added piece of evidence. "You're not mentioning what this means, though?"

Daiki shakes his head. "It's a trump card. If the others can't figure it out, well... their loss. We'll use this when the time comes."

The three take a few moments to look around the scene. It doesn't take long for them to find the flesh and fabric next to Gabriel's head. Alas, this must be the remnants of William's foot. The white pieces of fabric were the leftovers of his shoe. There were sharp, rocklike white things around too-it was deduced this must be bone. Any pieces of sharpnel around were soaked in blood. No doubt, William was a part of this explosion.

* * *

_A new piece of evidence has been added. [Read] / [Close]_

_\- William's Foot_

_To the right of Gabriel's head is all this flesh, bone, and fabric. All part of William's foot. Also, the shrapnel is covered in blood. William must've been a victim of the explosion._

_(Attached are photos of the remnants to William's lost limb. Included is also the distance between Gabriel's head and the sudden scatter of blood, etc.)_

* * *

"So how come only his foot got blown up?" Nori asks. "Shouldn't his whole body have blown up?"

"Maybe the explosion wasn't big enough to do that." Daiki says, "Then again, he's the literal Ultimate Cheater. Probably found some way out of it."

"But not enough to save his foot."

"No one can escape a bomb after the detonator's triggered."

_Beep beep_

Daiki's pocket suddenly vibrated with an incoming notification on his ElectroID. He looks up, seeing Nicholas wave at him from a few meters over. Puzzled, Daiki reaches into his pocket, taking out the device.

_A message has been received. [Read] / [Close]_

He taps the 'read' button.

As he had already put together, Daiki's message came from Nicholas. He sent him a package of photographs, and seemingly enough, they were of the scene before Daiki-except for one difference.

The inclusion of William Tricher.

Daiki looks back up to Nicholas, giving him a smirk and nod. The sentiment is returned.

* * *

_A new piece of evidence has been added. [Read] / [Close]_

_\- Bodies_

_Pictures of Gabriel and William before the latter was taken to the hospital. William is face down, opposite of Gabriel, and slightly ahead of Gabriel in his own direction. Both arms are in front of his head. Aside from his foot being blown off, he's a bit cut up by the shrapnel, most noticeably so on his right forearm._

_(Attached are the photos Nicholas took before William was taken to the hospital- it's of him and Gabriel, side by side.)_

_\- Added by Daiki Tachibana_

* * *

Around then, something suddenly came to Bert.

"Hey, how're the rest doing on Ryoko? They haven't been posting any evidence, have they?" he asks, checking his ElectroID.

"Meh. They're probably fine." Daiki shakes his head. "We still gotta search around here."

"What else is there, I wonder." Nori says with furrowed brows. He clasps his palm around his chin and mouth like a certain statue named The Thinker, though his hand was a bit higher than it probably should be.

"Not much." Daiki replies. "Still, you never know..."

* * *

"This is literally the weirdest thing ever." Hikaru blinks.

Hikaru had finally awoken, entirely back to normal. No rage, no fatigue. Laying about ten meters away was Ryoko's mangled corpse. Laying about a foot in front of her, Zéphyrine, and Hoshiko, is a trash can with the lid sitting on the ground. Near that lid, was the only object they found inside- an orange toolkit, with a bloodied hammer and drill. The kit is open.

"How?" Hoshiko asks. "Everyone was manipulated to be really mad. So why wouldn't they use a drill and hammer...?"

"You weren't manipulated, were you?" Hikaru asks.

"No." Hoshiko shakes her head.

"I should probably say I wasn't either." Zéphyrine adds.

"It... wasn't fun. I lost control of myself." Hikaru says solemnly, suddenly seeming to find something on the road very interesting. "I saw red. I wanted to kill. Sure, I had a knife, but that's because it was on me. I would never have thought to go to the hardware store and grab this kit..."

"I doubt anyone was carrying this huge thing around with them, either." Zéphyrine says.

"Exactly. That means..." Hikaru trails off.

"What _does_ that mean?" Hoshiko asks.

Hikaru crosses her arms. "Can someone just add that to the evidence?"

Zéphyrine nods. "Of course."

* * *

_A new piece of evidence has been added. [Read] / [Close]_

_\- Toolkit_

_An orange toolkit found in a trash can near Ryoko. The hardware shop is here too, so we assume that's where it came from. The hammer and drill are covered in blood. There's a part of the kit dedicated to heads for the drill, and one of them is missing. It's probably in the drill, but I don't fancy touching it, what with all the blood and guts._

_(Attached is a photo of the toolkit.)_

_\- Added by Zéphyrine Giroux_

* * *

Seemingly, there was nothing else of interest. The trio leading Ryoko's investigation returned to the body in question. While Hikaru didn't seem miffed in the slightest, Hoshiko was straining herself to keep down whatever it was she ate that day. Zéphyrine looked more sad than anything.

"This is... really messed up." Hikaru comments, kneeling down next to Ryoko. It was true. She was messed up. If it weren't for her clothes, and the fact that everyone else is accounted for, there wouldn't be a way to identify the body as Ryoko.

While Shiori didn't suffer much aside from a knife in her side, Gabriel had a slightly worse fate, and William lost a limb, Ryoko was no doubt the worst in terms of damage dealt. Her face was a mush. Just a mess of different shades of red, pink, magenta, and whatever else was in between. One end of some veins were lost in the mess, but the other end led to an entire bloodshot _eyeball_ sitting on the sidewalk. The other was crushed and lodged inside the cranial matter. Shards of Ryoko's skull cut open other veins, veins meant to carry blood to the brain, which were spewing out blood as they investigated.

Moving down, Ryoko's chest wasn't spared from this specific killer's onslaught. Instead of being a mess like her face, it was more like a hole. It was assumed this is where the drill was used.

Hikaru bit her lip as she looked at the body. Something was wrong. Something here didn't make sense. Nothing she could chalk up to the culprit simply being manipulated. No, something was just... _wrong._

Was it the slight scent of smoke drifting through the air?

The fact that in dead center of the chest wound, it was darker than it should've been?

Squinting her eyes, she examines the body further. There were no other wounds. With a slight nod, she adds the next entry to the evidence list.

* * *

_A new piece of evidence has been added. [Read] / [Close]_

_\- Ryoko_

_Ryoko's face is all smashed up. It's really bad. Her chest is more like a hole. The bloody drill we found was probably used here. Something about the body doesn't feel right, though..._

_(Attached are photos of the body from different angles and zoom levels.)_

_\- Added by Hikaru Momoko_

* * *

Next up, was the blood. Of course, there was blood everywhere. That wasn't a surprise. But what was interesting wasn't the pool Ryoko sat in. It was the blood on the wall behind her.

One splatter at face-level, one splatter at chest-level.

Hikaru's mouth was slightly ajar, eyes still squinted. She tilts her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she notices Hoshiko looking at Ryoko was the same squinted eyes she had. So Hoshiko noticed something was off...

Hikaru was starting to piece together what happened here. Slowly, the gears began turning.

"Looks like you figured something out?" Zéphyrine comments.

"...Not quite." Hikaru shakes her head. "Not just yet."

"I see... these splatters are peculiar." Zéphyrine says, changing the subject.

"This implies Ryoko was standing when she was attacked." Hikaru replies. "But, that doesn't make any sense, how could someone have done the damage to that degree while she was standing?"

"And if that were the case, should there not be more blood on the wall? It appears the majority is in the, well, pool around Ryoko." Zéphyrine says.

"Exactly..." Hikaru whispers.

Nonetheless, the evidence list expands.

* * *

_A new piece of evidence has been added. [Read] / [Close]_

_\- Ryoko's Blood_

_There's two small-ish splatters on the wall behind her, one at face-level and one at chest-level. Considering her wounds, and that there's more blood around her than on the wall, this doesn't make any sense at all..._

_(Attached is a photo of the wall, and the body.)_

_\- Added by Hikaru Momoko_

* * *

Back at the hospital, William is in dreamland. He needs rest. Annie sits in a grey fold-up chair nearby, reading the evidence off her ElectroID. Tennoyama does the same, though she's a bit of a distance away.

"So, what's gonna happen with William?" Tennoyama asks, cutting through the silence. "He needs rest, can't be up and about for the trial. Even if we do get him there, I ain't holdin' him up."

"I was thinking the same." Annie frowns. "We need to get him some crutches."

"We can't leave him here to sleep, huh?" Tennoyama sighs, looking at the slumbering male.

"No. I believe that's punishable. I can't remember if that's on the rules, but even if it isn't, I wouldn't like to see what Monokuma does." Annie shakes her head. "Also, we shouldn't be leaving anyone behind."

"Fair enough." Tennoyama agrees. "So we need to find some crutches, then."

"Stay here. I'll go take a look around." Annie advises, and before Tennoyama can even protest, she's gone.

"Well then." Tennoyama blinks. "Looks like it's just you and me, Will."

William weakly gives a thumbs up.

"...I thought you were asleep."

"Not anymore."

"You coulda said something when we were talking about you..."

"Nah... I wanted to hear what you had to s- say..."

"Just rest some more, okay?" Tennoyama sighs.

William shakes his head. "Can't do."

"Why the hell not?" Tennoyama asks.

"Trial." William replies, simply. He stretches, before sitting up a bit more than he was. He looks to Tennoyama. "What am I gonna do, just... stand around while you guys debate?"

With a wince, William reaches under his blanket and takes his ElectroID out of his pocket. It had some signs of wear, such as being a little crisp on the edges, but looked fine enough. He presses the power button and the screen glitches out for a second before returning to normal. He begins reading through the evidence.

"Ouch. That looks painful..." he says. William glances over to his foot.

"Ah. Saw the pictures of the scene with Gabriel, did you?" Tennoyama asks.

William nods.

"What _happened?_" she then asks.

William pauses. One deep breath later, "I don't know."

"Huh?" Tennoyama raises a brow.

"I don't know." William repeats himself, looking at the picture with intense eyes. "I... agh, I was outside, looking for someone... None of the announcements happened yet. But I just had this feeling. Anyway, I'm on the road, and well... next thing I know, I fell to the ground and knocked out."

"That's when the 'splosion happened, then." Tennoyama says.

"Yeah. I heard this click, looked down and I saw this _thing_ on the floor... had a bad feeling about it, so I booked it... g-guess I wasn't fast enough." he says, nodding his head in the direction of his foot. He sharply inhales through his nose all of a sudden, slowly exhaling through the mouth. He was still in pain.

"Fuckin' hell." Tennoyama whispers, shaking her head. "This is gonna be one messed up trial, ain't it?"

William is quiet. He doesn't reply.

After a silent ten minutes, the door suddenly creaks open.

Annie stands in the doorway. Two crutches are in her hand. She simply rests them against the wall near the entrance, walking over to her prior seat. Tennoyama looks at her with relief.

"So ya didn't die." she says.

"Of course not. I still have Nicholas' gun, anyway." Annie replies, with a slight smile.

"Oh, that's Nick's?" William says. "Yeah, that... I thought that looked f- familiar."

"You're up." Annie comments.

William nods.

"He's still in pain." Tennoyama says, "Trial's gonna be a bitch with him on crutches."

"At least this way I can... make it at all. Thanks, Annie." William says.

Annie nods.

* * *

Some more time passes. The nine currently in the city wandered around the downtown district, looking for any and all extra pieces of evidence. Alas, by this point, everything was found and recorded. At least- that's what they were convinced of. The teams switched places and investigated the other bodies, just to get a full comprehension of what exactly went down.

Ryoko Tsukatani's cause of death was unknown. Not even mentioned in the Monokuma File. Her face was destroyed and a hole was left in her chest.

Gabriel Stein died from brain failure. Sure enough, there was a hole in the back of his head. Despite being next to the location of an explosion, his only wound was that hole.

William Tricher is alive. He was right next to Gabriel, and lost his foot. Not only that, but he suffered nicks and cuts from shrapnel.

Shiori Yoshida died of blood loss. A knife was found sticking out of her abdomen. A trail of blood started near Gabriel and William, and led to her body.

The time was now 7:50. The rain had come to a stop, and the trial couldn't be too far now. Nicholas sent a text to Tennoyama a few minutes before, calling them back to the hotel. William of course came with them, with his foot wrapped up in fresh bandages (Annie had rewrapped them before leaving), bouncing with the help of crutches. Annie was on one side of him and Tennoyama the other, ensuring he doesn't fall. Though he was in pain, he was okay. Could be better, but the time to rest was not now.

"It's not long now." Nicholas says to the other eleven students before him. "The trial's gonna start soon. This is gonna be like the first one all over again. You all ready for this?"

It was silent. No one said anything, instead glancing around. Tennoyama glancing at Hikaru. Seymour glancing at Rina. Hoshiko glancing to her side, only to look to the ground right after. Daiki staring ahead of Nicholas with a faraway gaze.

"Don't be so depressed, guys." Nori speaks up. "This is just another puzzle for us to solve. After this, we'll be one step closer to victory!" He starts muttering to himself after that. 'Isn't that right, Teddy?' Nicholas notices a teddy bear in his hands. _Right. I forgot about that thing,_ he thinks.

"But at what cost...?" Rina asks. "The deaths of our friends?"

"Makes you wonder if it's all really worth it." Seymour comments. The light on his camera is on, leading Nicholas to believe he was currently recording.

"...I dunno about you guys, but I'd rather a few of us die than us all." Nori shrugs.

"Hey!" Rina protests, before quieting down.

Everyone's silent, mulling over Nori's words. He had a point. A few deaths over everyone is, admittedly not the best compromise, but the _only_ compromise. The only choice. The only move they can make from here on out is play this game, and make an attempt at limiting casualties.

"You all understand, don't you?" Nori frowns. "We have to play Monokuma's game! Or else he punishes us all. He already executed that one girl. He's not joking around here!"

"I'm afraid he's right." Zéphyrine says, solemnly. "What other choice do we have?"

"None." Nori says. "Help isn't coming- well, if it is, they're not here yet. So what do we do until then? Do what Monokuma says."

_A game of compromise, then..._ Nicholas crosses his arms, closing his eyes in thought.

The time is 7:59. The students are silent, waiting for the announcement.

...

Nicholas looks into the eyes of each of the students around him. What happens next? Who _dies_ next? As much as he hoped help would come any minute now and break them out of here before the trial, he knew it wouldn't happen. He knew what has to happen now. They have to find the killer, or _killers,_ and punish them.

Someone has to die. There's no way they can go into the trial with twelve survivors and come out with twelve survivors.

**Ding, dong, ding, dong.**

"Here we go." Nicholas says. Just as that bell rings, a transit bus rolls in front of the hotel. "Go, go."

"This is it, everyone!" Monokuma's voice echoes across the buildings of Las Despair City. "Time for Class Trial! Let's head down to Despair Square, shall we?"

_Let's do it._ Nicholas says, staring forward. He waits for everyone else to board first. _Am I more prepared than I was last time? Maybe... but we only had to solve one mystery. This time around there's three bodies. This is going to be a longer trial, isn't it..._

The bus is silent. After Nicholas climbs on in, the doors shut behind him. Everyone is sitting down, with various facial expressions. Nicholas hangs on to a handle coming out of the ceiling as the bus begins moving, as he drives his feet into the ground and ensures he doesn't fall. Nicholas' eyes scan each of the students. There's eleven of them. Eleven suspects. One, or two of these people are guilty. Guilty of murder.

The only sound to be heard on the ride to Despair Square was the rumble of the bus' engine.

* * *

Kagome, Hitaka, and the mysterious Yoshida sit on fold-up chairs in the airship, watching the game's events through Kagome's TV. It sits on a small, round table in front of them.

"This is it." Kagome says, leaning over and tapping the ashes out of his cigarette into an ashtray on the table.

"We won't get there in time. This trial's up to them." Hitaka sighs. "They already got through one, so..."

Yoshida is silent. Not a word comes out of his mouth. He's barely been speaking at all, actually.

"Only thing we can do now is watch." Kagome says.

"Agreed." says another voice. A larger male in a tan-colored suit comes by, with a tag on his jacket reading 'Ryan White'. "I have faith in them. Isn't that what we're all about? Faith?"

After a pause, Kagome nods. Hitaka does the same. "That is what we're called, isn't it?" he says.

* * *

On the Future Foundation's battleship, several young men and women are in a situation room, watching a large screen.

"The second trial." a blond says, pushing up his eyeglasses with two fingers.

"The Executioner or... whatever, is still in there." says a female with somewhat of an athlete's build and a brown ponytail. "We need to save them..."

Two of the males stand in front of the screen, both with oddly similar, spiky hair. One was in a full black suit and tie, the other lacking a jacket. The latter was a bit larger than the first, most noticeably in the chest area. "There's nothing we can do right now," says the one in the full suit.

"Nothing but... keep hope."

* * *

**EVIDENCE LIST**

* * *

_Monokuma File #2: Ryoko Tsukatani, the Ultimate Poetess_

_Cause of Death: ?_

_Time of Death: 6:30_

_Notes: Several weapons were used. Some postmortem._

_Monokuma File #3: Gabriel Stein, the Ultimate Engineer_

_Cause of Death: Brain Failure_

_Time of Death: 6:37_

_Notes: The explosion did not affect Gabriel._

_Monokuma File #4: Shiori Yoshida, the Ultimate Composer_

_Cause of Death: Blood Loss_

_Time of Death: 6:45_

_Notes: None._

_\- Shiori's Body_

_Shiori's leaning against a window to some electronics shop. Looks like she didn't suffer any wounds other than a knife sticking out of her side._

_(Attached are photos from different angles of the body, including a close-up of the wound.)_

_\- Added by Nicholas White_

_\- Blood Trail_

_A trail of blood starts near Gabriel and leads to Shiori. Blood from her wound goes into the end of the trail, so I assume it's Shiori's blood._

_(Attached are photos of the trail.)_

_\- Added by Nicholas White_

_\- Head Wound_

_There's a small hole in the back of Gabriel's head. It's rough and dense. Not a clean wound. The hole doesn't extend all the way through._

_(Attached is a photo of Gabriel's head wound.)_

_\- Added by Daiki Tachibana_

_\- Lack of Wounds (Bert)_

_Despite being so close to the crater, and shrapnel being all around, Bert suffered no other wounds than the one in his head._

_(No photos attached.)_

_\- Added by Daiki Tachibana_

_\- William's Foot_

_To the right of Gabriel's head is all this flesh, bone, and fabric. All part of William's foot. Also, the shrapnel is covered in blood. William must've been a victim of the explosion._

_(Attached are photos of the remnants to William's lost limb. Included is also the distance between Gabriel's head and the sudden scatter of blood, etc.)_

_\- Bodies_

_Pictures of Gabriel and William before the latter was taken to the hospital. William is face down, opposite of Gabriel, and slightly ahead of Gabriel in his own direction. Both arms are in front of his head. Aside from his foot being blown off, he's a bit cut up by the shrapnel, most noticeably so on his right forearm._

_(Attached are the photos Nicholas took before William was taken to the hospital- it's of him and Gabriel, side by side.)_

_\- Added by Daiki Tachibana_

_\- Toolkit_

_An orange toolkit found in a trash can near Ryoko. The hardware shop is here too, so we assume that's where it came from. The hammer and drill are covered in blood. There's a part of the kit dedicated to heads for the drill, and one of them is missing. It's probably in the drill, but I don't fancy touching it, what with all the blood and guts._

_(Attached is a photo of the toolkit.)_

_\- Added by Zéphyrine Giroux_

_\- Ryoko_

_Ryoko's face is all smashed up. It's really bad. Her chest is more like a hole. The bloody drill we found was probably used here. Something about the body doesn't feel right, though..._

_(Attached are photos of the body from different angles and zoom levels.)_

_\- Added by Hikaru Momoko_

_\- Ryoko's Blood_

_There's two small-ish splatters on the wall behind her, one at face-level and one at chest-level. Considering her wounds, and that there's more blood around her than on the wall, this doesn't make any sense at all..._

_(Attached is a photo of the wall, and the body.)_

_\- Added by Hikaru Momoko_

* * *

[A/N: And there's our investigation chapter! Nice. Trial will be next. Hope you all enjoyed. Also, had a spike in reviews! Thanks. All reviews are greatly appreciated. Keep 'em coming.

CaptainQuackin: Should I just call this fic 'shit hits the fan' at this point? Thanks though.

NellisTable: Thanks!

JokersMaze: (y)

Saiynt: Rip Ryoko. She will not be forgotten. ;-;7 (I feel like ffn is going to fuck that up. If it does, it's a sad face giving a salute.) Also hey, as long as you're still interested that's cool.

dashunterman: Of course. Goddammit Monokuma, always messing things up. Thanks by the way.

Integras: Poor Gabe. And thanks a lot man, I'm tryin to get this thing more noticed... Considering how this is the longest I've ever gone with a story and I plan on actually finishing it, and all. (You guys should give me a promo, or something.) (Jk.)

Thanks for reading, have a good one.]


	17. FINALE

My name is Nicholas White. I've been kidnapped and forced to play what our captor calls a Mutual Killing Game. My classmates at Hope's Peak Academy and I were the contestants- the only way to win, to escape, to return to our lives, is to successfully get away with the murder of another student.

It's been quite a while since then.

There's been a lot of deaths. Kinzoku killed Hibiki. Daiki killed Ryoko. William's split personality Wilson (his existence was solely to protect William apparently), killed Gabriel and Shiori. Zéphyrine killed Hoshiko. That... monster, in the hospital, it killed Bert, and Durion. And Hikaru...

Well, now it's just me, Seymour, Annie, Rina, and Tennoyama.

...

Help never came. The timer went up, and Monokuma vanished. We don't know what happened to him, he hasn't appeared again. There were a lot of noises that day, gunshots, explosions, the like. Monokuma was gone, and so were the electric fences. We had free reign all over the city.

To our dismay, there weren't any planes. We checked the airport, all the hangars, everything. There were plane _wrecks,_ yes, but no planes. No boats at the docks, either. The possibility of driving was out of the question, as the city was surrounded by water. As in, without bridges.

We supposed there was the possibility of swimming. Alas, it's too risky. We could be stuck in the middle of the ocean with no idea where to go. At the very least we still had food, resources.

They've been running out, though. After Monokuma was gone, we noticed immediately. The food didn't restack overnight like before. Shelves were running dry. This is actually what prompted us to leave the hotel- we gathered our things and moved to the suburbs. We're a bit closer to a grocery store now, and the houses are a little more comfortable than the hotel rooms. Bit more customizable, too.

Point is, we're still in this city, and unless someone rescues us, we are going to die here.

I suppose I'm not sure I want to leave as much as I did before, though. Seymour's staying until he finds out exactly what happened here. Of course, he is a journalist. As much as I'd love to be a million miles away from this place, I have to admit I'm curious. I want to know why we played this game. I want to know who put us here. There are far too many unanswered questions.

Just... what to do now...

* * *

I take a seat on the wooden bench. Next to me is Seymour and Rina. I honestly didn't quite know what to make of their relationship, but as far as I know, they were simply really good friends.

"Hey, Nick." Seymour greets.

"Hi." Rina smiles. She looked like she was in her element, decked from head to toe in full winter gear. Her black boots rested in the blanket of snow in front of us.

"Hey, guys. How are you doing?" I ask.

"Bored." Rina frowns. "All this snow, but none of you guys want to go skiing with me..."

"I'm too busy." Seymour sighs. _Right, wonder how that's going..._

"How's investigation?" I ask.

"Haven't turned up anything, yet. We know the same as we did at the start, and that's... not a whole lot." he answers.

"Crap, sorry." I frown. "I'd be helping you, but I just... I don't know. I can't."

"Don't apologize, Nick. I don't expect you to be on your feet working after everything that's happened this past year. Erm, year and a half."

_Twenty months, to be exact..._

Soon enough, someone else suddenly arrives.

"Oi. Thought you all'd be here." Tennoyama says, arriving and placing herself next to me with a heavy sigh.

"Hey, you alright?" I ask.

"Yeah, yeah. Tired, didn't fuckin' sleep." Tennoyama says. She stretches out her left arm, putting it behind us. Her right arm rests on the handle.

"How come?" Seymour asks.

"Been gettin' nightmares the past week." she says, gaze staring forward at the playground before us.

"About the game...?" I hesitantly ask.

Tennoyama does nothing but nod. I immediately feel the need to apologize, but Seymour takes care of that.

"Sorry, Tennoyama." he says, simply.

"No sweat." she shakes her head. "Not any of your guys' fault."

...I feel like that was directed to me. Hikaru's name flashes in my mind.

After that, the four of us are just... sitting. What's on everyone's minds? I don't know. I'm reflecting on everything. Everything that's happened. All the losses, everything we've been through. It's been tough, my mind's been in a constant state of anxiety. I noticed that both mine and Seymour's facial hair have been growing out. I've been failing to shave, not sure about Seymour.

_Beep beep_

A recognizable beeping suddenly cuts out of the silence. Everyone instinctively reaches into their pocket, but it's mine that the sound came from. A notification from my ElectroID. A message, to be specific.

_Annie Meritua: Can you come to the coffee shop? I have something I need to tell you, it's... rather urgent._

"Huh." I mutter. I show everyone my ID so they can see it.

"That's odd." Seymour murmurs. "You off, then?"

"Yeah." I nod, getting up. I type out a quick 'ok' before going in front of Seymour, giving him props. I nod to Tennoyama and Rina. "We got any plans today?"

"I'm taking the day off investigation. Let's meet up later, we'll figure something out." Seymour says.

"Alright. See you guys later." I say.

Rina waves. "Bye, Nick. Tell Annie I say hi."

"Yep. Seeya, dude." Tennoyama gives me a quick salute.

With that, I make my way to meet Annie.

* * *

_Ding-a-ling._ The bell to the café rings as I push open the door. My eyes scan the place. The first thing I see is the bar, right in the middle of the coffee shop. It's set up in a sort of square where you can order from each side. Surrounding it are sets of booths and tables, each of the chairs having a wood and brown leather scheme. Actually, nearly everything in here was wooden and brown.

Anyway, my eyes finally fall on a booth in the far corner, near a window. There she is. Annie sits, holding on to her cup with gloved hands, slowly taking a sip. Another cup is across from her, presumably where I'm supposed to be sitting. And so, I approach the girl.

"Morning." I say, sitting down. We got the generators running a while back, so the heaters in the establishment were going full blast at the moment. I unzip my grey winter coat and place it next to me. I notice Annie's in a maroon red, velvet, double-breasted jacket with a large bow on the collar. It reminds me of the vest she wore on the very first day I saw her. Just over a year and a half ago, now...

"Good morning." Annie returns the greeting, taking another careful sip of her apparently hot drink. "That's for you, by the way."

Ah, she was referring to the cup in front of me. I give her my thanks before popping open the little part in the lid to drink from. Black coffee. As per usual - after so many coffee meetings, Annie was well aware of my taste. I blow on it, and bring the liquid to my lips.

"So... what's going on? You said you had something to tell me. Oh, wait- Rina says hi, by the way." I say. I barely notice her stiffen up, if for only a brief moment. Annie closes her eyes, sipping from her coffee.

There's a long pause, before she sighs. Annie makes direct eye contact and speaks up. "I have to... confess, to something."

I'm confused. What's this about? I simply cock an eyebrow, waiting for her to continue.

"You remember things, don't you?" Annie says.

I nod. Over the past twenty or so months that we've been here, I've been regaining bits and pieces of my memory. Not much of it is good. After we were knocked out at Hope's Peak Academy, we woke up in different places around Tokyo. All I remember is chaos. People running around, screaming. The crackle of flames. The _pop_ of a nine millimeter pistol followed by the consistent spray of a machine gun. The sirens of the ambulances. The whirring of helicopter blades above. The whack of a baseball bat cracking open someone's skull. The blood seeping in between the cracks of the road, the sidewalk.

I didn't realize it at the time, but I was witnessing the fall of society.

A student at Hope's Peak Academy named Junko Enoshima brought hell on Earth. Started an organization called Ultimate Despair. Really didn't take much to join- all you needed to do was put on a Monokuma mask and start killing. From what I heard, Enoshima got off on despair. It was her thing. After running a Mutual Killing game with the help of her sister, the students won. One of the first where there were survivors, I believe. Makoto Naegi fought back against her despair with hope, and a revolution began. A revolution to make things right again.

Did it work? Not quite. The Japanese government created a special task force committed to eradicating despair called the Future Foundation. It didn't take long for members of Ultimate Despair to join their ranks and destroy them from the inside out. This was a few years after what happened- The Tragedy- and the Future Foundation's reputation sank. After a student found out the mastermind behind his Mutual Killing was a member of the Future Foundation, he figured they weren't the kind of people to bring despair to an end. And thus, Hitaka Yuushi created his own group, called Faith.

There's only one more thing that I remember. I joined Faith to work with Hitaka, my partner Kagome, and a few others. Including my brother Logan. And all of us, we were searching for two people...

The Storyteller, and The Executioner.

"Why do you ask?" I say, after reflecting.

"Do you remember my talent?" Annie asks, returning my question with one of her own.

"Of course. Ultimate Pacifist." I recall.

"Right." Annie looks away. The sunlight shines on her face, through the snow building up on the windowsill. "I'm sorry Nicholas, but... I lied."

"About your talent?" I sip from my cup. I'm a bit confused, but I don't have any reason not to trust Annie. She's always been on my side. On all of our sides. One of our lost friends told me through a tarot card reading that I should be taking leadership, but throughout the game, Annie was the leader. She was the one that brought us hope. Hell, she was our Makoto Naegi.

She nods. Her head turns back to face me, and she says something that nearly makes me jump out of my seat.

"I'm actually the Ultimate Executioner."

My cup was about to rise to my mouth, but I freeze. At the sound of those words, my heart _drops._ My breath is taken away for a moment. _W-Wait, she can't be..._

"I guess you might know me better as simply, The Executioner, however." Annie says.

We knew who The Storyteller was. Inoue Arata. Heir to the throne of a large Yakuza clan, before everything happened. Did we know who The Executioner was? No. All we knew was that whoever this person was, they were... bad. Several Mutual Killing games were under their belt, and they were high up on the chart of 'most kills'. A terrorist. And... here she was, right in front of me?

I tried to think. This had to be a prank, right? But it couldn't be. I never mentioned The Executioner in front of anyone. She shouldn't know. There's only one way she would know, and that's if she knew The Executioner. I supposed _being_ The Executioner would help in that regard.

"...explain." I say, after finally coming back to myself.

"It's true that I'm a pacifist. I have been there to stop many bad things from happening." Annie replies. "But my real title came when I watched someone get the death penalty."

"I was taken to the police station for questioning after I witnessed an assault." she continues. "I was looking for the bathroom, but... I got lost. I ended up in the observation area for an execution chamber. Inside, a man was strapped down to a table. I was told he was a serial killer, and he was getting his punishment. Death by poison gas."

"I remember hearing something like that..." I murmur. "That was a long time ago."

"Of course. Anyways... he deserved his death. He was a bad man. After I found out about these executions, I started watching them more, studying them, seeing how they were done... until eventually, I became an executioner."

"Dear god, you wanted to kill these people?" I whisper, more to myself than to Annie. I couldn't believe it. Sweet, innocent little Annie, and her real title was _Executioner?_

Annie nods. "No one was allowed to watch my executions. If the victim chose death by firing squad, I would miss on purpose. If they wanted the needle, I'd give one that doesn't make them unconscious. You see... they were bad people, and needed appropriate punishments. No sympathy for the wicked."

"I don't understand." I shake my head, "They called you a terrorist. _I_ called you a terrorist. You have one of the highest recorded kill counts from your Mutual Killings alone."

"I hosted the games to bring out the killers in us all. The murderers, the _bad people._" Annie says. "Listen, Nicholas. I'm sure you know how horrible humans can be."

"I'm aware, yes..." I reluctantly nod, unpleasant memories of my time after The Tragedy rising to the surface.

"Even before Junko Enoshima, I've wanted a better society. It's why I became The Executioner. Think about it, the world would be better off without these terrible criminals."

"You were trying to rid the world of bad people, and make Earth a better place..." I realize.

"What would be the best way to get people to show their true colors?" Annie asks me.

"Put them in a position where they have no choice." I say. I don't miss a beat as I do- everything was starting to make sense.

"Exactly." Annie nods, "This game did exactly that. It brought out the true colors of my class at Hope's Peak. The plan was for the survivors to value peace and serenity more after going through such conflict, but..." she trails off.

"You couldn't have picked a less cruel way to do it?" I frown. "Innocent people _died,_ Annie."

Annie's lips curve into a bit of a weird smile. "Perhaps you're right, Nicholas." The tone of her voice was different. There was... something behind it, like she knew something I didn't.

"Anyhow, all of this brings us to this very moment." Annie says, with a sigh. "I didn't bring you here to just to confess my sins."

...

_Oh shit._

I hear a click. Annie's hand comes out from inside her coat and next thing I know, I'm staring down the barrel of a shiny, silver .44 Magnum revolver. Her finger rests on the trigger.

_Hikaru._

Hikaru is dead. There was a trial, and we got to a culprit.

That person was about to be executed, but the timer ran down to zero before Monokuma could begin the execution.

Annie was Monokuma. I never did see her control the bear, but I could infer that it was running on an AI. It did have a robotic body. Apparently, even after the mascot was gone, Monokuma would still find a way to execute the killer.

Me.

"My execution did get cut off, didn't it...?" I say, with a sad half-chuckle. Realizing what I've come to. Realizing what must be done.

I killed Hikaru. And it's time for my punishment.

"Yes, yes it did." Annie says. "I hope you didn't think you would get away with it, did you?"

"I did, actually." I admit, sighing. "Before you pull that trigger, tell me one thing."

She doesn't say a word, raising her eyebrows to prompt me to continue.

"What happens next?"

"I hunt down the others, and call for Ultimate Despair to get me out of here." she replies, idly spinning the chambers of her revolver. Considering how you can't shoot while that's happening, I could've taken advantage, but... "I don't plan on sticking with Ultimate Despair, by the way. They were only my allies so I could orchestrate this game."

"So after this, you're gonna keep trying to fix society, huh?" I mutter.

Annie nods.

I wanted to say something. To have a comeback. To say, 'you're wrong'. That there were better ways, she shouldn't be doing this. But I couldn't. I found myself able to relate with her. Humanity has always, always been flawed. Between wars, racism, sexism, and every other word ending with 'ism', humanity could use work. Was this the way to go about it? Maybe it was. She had a point, this would make the survivors value peace much more. After suffering all the tragedies of this game, anyone who makes it out would certainly be interested in joining the crusade of ending despair. I suppose that's not going to happen, here.

For a while, we just stared at each other in silence. The only thing to be heard was the howl of December's wind against the window. My life was about to end, right here, right now. Am I happy with that?

_Yeah..._

_Yeah, this... this is fine._

The others are going to die too. I know. They've all sinned. Either during the motive where our emotions got the best of us, during the final motive in which all food and electricity was taken away from us, or just in general, we all have skeletons in our closets. As much as I didn't want them dead...

...

Well, no sympathy for the wicked, right?

"I did not think it would come to this, Nicholas." Annie finally breaks the silence. "I'm sorry."

I nod. "Me too."

Annie returns the nod. The last thing I see is the sudden tensing of her finger, before the world went black.

* * *

...

"Hello, and good morning. My name is Adachi Yoshida, with Channel 4 news. Here are your top stories."

"Today marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of The Tragedy, the largest loss of human life ever recorded. On this day in 2015, the Riots of Tokyo broke out, prompting the fall of society. It was only a year later, 2016, when World War 3 began. It ended twenty-five years later, in 2041."

"We're here at the religious school, St. Naegi Elementary, talking with the students about what they think of the event. To you, Saiki Tadayuki."

"Thank you, Adachi. Can you tell us your name?"

"Um... Kyoko."

"Kyoko, that's a beautiful name. Have you been studying The Tragedy?"

"Yes... We're doing a unit on it in history."

"What do you think of it?"

"It's scary... everyone now is so calm... I'm really glad we aren't like that anymore."

"Agreed. Thank you Kyoko- back to you, Adachi."

"Thank you, Saiki. Today in sports, the Shintoyako Hopefuls won against the Shakosunai Valiants..."

...

...

...

"Kazuki, phone for you."

"Eh? Who the fuck is it now?"

"He says his name is... Hitaka?"

"That fuck is still alive? Here, pass me the phone. Thanks, darlin'."

"For your information, Kagome, yeah I'm still alive."

"Hahaha! Heard that, did ya?"

"Heh, yeah... yeah, I did."

"How've you been?"

"I don't know... I overheard them saying they want to pull the plug, soon. Technology took such a blow that there ain't really much they can do..."

"Bullshit. Bullshit! Look, you tell them Kazuki Kagome said to save my friend Hitaka. You're fine, goddammit."

"You seem to be good as ever..."

"...well, I got the same talk, that's why. Figured I may as well spend my last days with a smile on my face. You know I didn't smile back in the day."

"Fair enough. Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to come over. We'll have coffee, play a game of cards, talk about old times, you know?"

"I don't think that's gonna happen, bud. I'm paralyzed from the waist down, remember? And how the hell are _you_ gonna talk about old times?"

"Oh, shit... how many times have you told me that?"

"Erm, a lot."

"Sorry. Fuck."

"Listen, it's fine. We're old. Little paralyzation over here, little memory loss over there... shit happens."

"I'd still like to talk about old times, though. I miss Nicholas."

"Nick... We should've known flyin' in guns blazing was a stupid fuckin' plan. That's how I lost my legs, by the way."

"I don't remember that story. Mind telling me again?"

"Yeah, yeah. In short, they had Ultimate Despair poppin' out from the manholes and fuckin' killed us all. But the long version, well... I hope you're sittin' down."

...

...

...

"I'm glad you changed your ways, Arata."

"Thanks. It feels... weird to be called that, after so much time as The Storyteller..."

"I suppose it was my fault. I thought you and Suzuki would make a good couple, I didn't think she would encourage you to..."

"Chika, please. I'm the one to blame, not you. You're... you're my sister, and I won't leave your side again."

"That's good... that's good, Arata. What do you plan on doing now?"

"I'm old, Chika. There's nothing I can do. I've already did my time with the Future Foundation, got all the forgiveness a bastard like me could get... I've lived a hard life, it's time for me to rest..."

"Whatever happened to that James, by the way?"

"Don't know. It was clear he wanted to kill me. He was an Inoue, and he was supposed to be swimming in money and power. I took all of that away from the Inoues, so of course he would want me dead. We talked a little, I left to make us tea, and when I came back... well, he was gone."

"Oh..."

"Guess that's it for me, though. Chika, can you get me a cigarette please?"

"Yeah, yeah... you have a lighter?"

"No... one of those too, thanks."

"Okay."

* * *

**END: CLIMBING TO HOPE**

* * *

[A/N: So, I guess you didn't expect that. My apologies to anyone who was interested in this, but I'm calling it quits. The lack of views/reviews/whatever has led me to believe this doesn't quite have a large fanbase, and well... I plan on leaving the site. I'll probably show up every so often to read any SYOCs I'm still in, but aside from that, I'm out. The last year and a half or so has been fun, but well, that's it. Thanks guys.]


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